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Jason Allen-Paisant

ジェイソン・アレン＝ペイサント

Jeison Aren-Peisanto

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1980 （Jamaica）
Nationality
Jamaica
Languages
English, French
Residence History
Manchester Parish, Jamaica → Oxford, UK → Paris, France → Manchester, UK → Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

Career

Occupations
poet, writer, academic
Active Years
2017-
Affiliations
Department of English, American Studies, and Creative Writing, University of Manchester, Associate editor of Callaloo
Influenced By
Derek Walcott, Aimé Césaire, Bertolt Brecht

Education

University of the West Indies (Mona)
unknown
Country: Jamaica
attended
École normale supérieure (Paris)
unknown
Country: France
further study
University of Oxford
Medieval & Modern Languages
Degree: DPhil
Country: United Kingdom
earned a DPhil

Awards

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
2022
Work: Thinking with Trees
Category: 詩部門
Organization: OCM Bocas Prize
Result: 受賞
T. S. Eliot Prize
2023
Work: Self-Portrait as Othello
Organization: T. S. Eliot Prize
Result: 受賞
Forward Prize for Best Collection
2023
Work: Self-Portrait as Othello
Organization: Forward Prize
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Thinking with Trees

2021 poetry collection

His first collection of poems, which won the poetry category of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

naturetreesCaribbean identity

Self-Portrait as Othello

2023 poetry collection

Uses William Shakespeare's Othello to explore a black male immigrant's search for an identity and masculine role model. Winner of 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize for Best Collection.

identityimmigrationBlack masculinityShakespeare

Théâtre dialectique postcolonial: Aimé Césaire et Derek Walcott

2017 monograph

Monograph based on his dissertation on theatre from the French- and English-speaking Caribbean.

postcolonialtheatreCaribbean literature

Engagements with Aimé Césaire: Thinking with Spirits

2024 monograph

Second monograph on Aimé Césaire.

Aimé Césairepostcolonial

The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican's Search for Freedom in Nature

2025 creative non-fiction

A work of creative non-fiction about a Jamaican's search for freedom in nature.

naturefreedomJamaica

Bibliography

  • Thinking with Trees, Carcanet Press, 2021
  • Self-Portrait as Othello, Carcanet Press, 2023
  • Théâtre dialectique postcolonial: Aimé Césaire et Derek Walcott, Classiques Garnier, 2017
  • Engagements with Aimé Césaire: Thinking with Spirits, Oxford University Press, 2024
  • The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican's Search for Freedom in Nature, Hutchinson Heinemann/Penguin, 2025

Style & Themes

Literary Style
great imaginative capacityfreshnesstechnical flair
Recurring Motifs
naturetreesidentityimmigrant experiencepostcolonial

Legacy

Prominent Jamaican poet and academic based in the UK, winner of the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize. Professor at the University of Manchester.

Quotes

  • a book with large ambitions that are met with great imaginative capacity, freshness and technical flair.
    Source: T. S. Eliot Prize judging panel (Paul Muldoon, Sasha Dugdale, Denise Saul) (2023)

Trivia

  • Grew up in a small village in Manchester Parish, central Jamaica.
  • His mother was a primary school teacher.
  • Lives in Leeds, west Yorkshire, with his partner and their two children.