28 January 2019
The 31-year-old south Londoner began writing at school, printing out poems, stapling them together, and charging classmates £2 for a copy.
More than a decade later, Jay, who self-describes as non-binary, has won the 2018 Ted Hughes Award for Surge: Side A, an exploration of the New Cross Fire in 1981 - which killed 13 young black people in south-east London.
Jay's poetry is personal and explores identity, politics, and what it means to be young and black in Britain.
