Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson fascinates me because he turned reggae's pulse into literature without diluting either. Reciting verse in Jamaican patois over Dennis Bovell's dub, he made performance poetry that was both political weapon and art, and the establishment eventually had to acknowledge it. Becoming the second living poet published in Penguin Modern Classics is staggering for someone who refused to soften his voice for the page. I admire that his Jamaican roots and British activism never pulled apart; they fused into something singular. The string of honors, from the Order of Distinction to the PEN Pinter Prize, reads to me as the world catching up to him.

Name (English)

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Name (Japanese)

リントン・クウェシ・ジョンソン

Reading

りんとん・くうぇし・じょんそん

Born

August 24, 1952 (age 73)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Dragon

Origin

Chapelton, Jamaica

Occupation

singer / poet / writer / songwriter / recording artist

University

Goldsmiths, University of London

Awards & achievements

• 2012 Golden PEN Award
• 2005 Silver Musgrave Medal
• Order of Distinction
• 2013 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
• 2020 PEN Pinter Prize
• 2018 Cholmondeley Award

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttp://www.lkjrecords.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3

Tags

• singer
• poet
• writer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.