About
Patience Agbabi is a Fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University since 2008, and previously lectured at Cardiff, Greenwich, and Kent Universities until 2004. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sussex (2002), following her education at Eirias High School in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Her research interests center on medieval literature, particularly Chaucer, the intersection of performance and page poetry, and formal verse structures like sonnets and the specular. She advocates for linguistic diversity and neurodiverse representation in literature.
Her work includes a 21st-century retelling of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Telling Tales), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award (2014) and Wales Book of the Year (2015). Her debut novel, The Infinite (2020), explores an autistic protagonist’s time-travel journey, blending formal poetic techniques with accessibility. Collaborations like the Refugee Tales project highlight her commitment to amplifying marginalized voices.
Agbabi’s career has been supported by grants such as Arts Council funding for Telling Tales. She emphasizes traditional forms alongside modern innovation, arguing poetry must be both orally and visually compelling. Her work reflects a lifelong engagement with Chaucer’s influence and the evolution of literary language.
