Rhymes and Reasons: The Jason Allen Paisant Biography

Jason Allen Paisant was a British-Jamaican poet known for his remarkable contributions to contemporary poetry.

Life and Career

Jason Allen Paisant was born in 1980 (age 44 years), in Jamaica. He completed his schooling at the University of the West Indies (Mona), followed by further study at the École normale supérieure (Paris), and the University of Oxford, where he earned a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) in Medieval & Modern Languages.

Allen-Paisant’s first collection of poems, “Thinking with Trees”, won the poetry category of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. His second collection, “Self-Portrait as Othello”, uses William Shakespeare’s Othello to explore a black male immigrant’s search for an identity and masculine role model. It was a Poetry Book Society Choice in 2023 and went on to win the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection and the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize.

Allen-Paisant is currently a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Critical Theory and Creative Writing in the Department of English, American Studies, and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester1.

Award and Legacy

His first collection of poems, “Thinking with Trees”, won the poetry category of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

His second collection, “Self-Portrait as Othello”, won the prestigious 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Allen-Paisant’s work continues to inspire readers and writers around the world. His exploration of identity and masculinity in “Self-Portrait as Othello” has been particularly impactful1.

He is currently a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Critical Theory and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester, where he influences the next generation of writers and thinkers1.

A work of creative non-fiction by Allen-Paisant, entitled “The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican’s Search for Freedom in Nature”, is due to be published in 20251.