About

Dean Atta by Josimar Senior

BIOGRAPHY

Dean Atta (born 1984) is an award-winning Black British writer based in Ealing, West London. His heartfelt storytelling draws on his Greek Cypriot and Jamaican heritage as well as his queer identity. He writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for all ages.

For adults, his memoir, PERSON UNLIMITED: AN ODE TO MY BLACK QUEER BODY, earned praise from Michael Rosen as "wonderfully original."

His young adult novels in verse are THE BLACK FLAMINGO, ONLY ON THE WEEKENDS, and I CAN'T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT. 

THE BLACK FLAMINGO won the Stonewall Book Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Jhalak Prize. Malorie Blackman praised the book, saying, "I loved every word."

Dean has also contributed to middle-grade anthologies HAPPY HERE: 10 STORIES FROM BLACK BRITISH AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS and the Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller BLACK BOY JOY: 17 STORIES CELEBRATING BLACK BOYHOOD.

For younger readers, AUNTIE’S BANGLES is a moving, lyrical picture book about love and loss, and CONFETTI is a colourful celebration of love and life. Both are illustrated by Alea Marley.

Additionally, Dean is a screenwriter and executive producer of the stop-motion animated short film TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE, which was longlisted for a BAFTA and nominated for a British Independent Film Award.

TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE is adapted from Dean’s poem of the same name from his poetry collection THERE IS (STILL) LOVE HERE.

TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE is available to stream on Channel 4 On Demand in the UK and Ireland.

PUBLISHING 

Nonfiction: 

• Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body (Canongate, 2024)

Poetry  collections:  

• There is (still) love here (Nine Arches Press, 2022)

• I Am Nobody’s Nigger (The Westbourne Press, 2013) 

Young adult verse novels: 

• I Can't Even Think Straight (Hodder Children's Books, 2025)

• Only on the Weekends (Hodder Children’s Books, 2022)

• The Black Flamingo (Hodder Children’s Books, 2019)  

Picture books: 

• Confetti (Orchard, 2024)  

• Auntie's Bangles (Orchard, 2026)

Anthologies: 

• Mixed: Explore and Celebrate Your Mixed Identity (Macmillan, 2026)

• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Spiracle, 2025)

• Poetry Prescription: Joy (Macmillan, 2025)

• Poetry Prescription: Becoming (Macmillan, 2025)

• Spaces of Significance (Broken Sleep Books, 2024)

• Joy//Us: Poems of Queer Joy (Arachne Press, 2024)

• 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022)

• More Fiya (Canongate, 2022)

• Re·creation: A Queer Poetry Anthology (Stewed Rhubarb, 2022) 

• Where We Find Ourselves: Poems and Stories of Maps and Mapping from UK writers of the global majority (Arachne Press, 2021)

• Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika's Poetry Kitchen (Corsair, 2021) 

• Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood (Delacorte Press, 2021) 

• Happy Here: 10 stories from Black British authors & illustrators (Knights Of, 2021) 

• Everything is Going to be All Right: Poems for When You Really Need Them (Trapeze, 2021) 

• Metaphors for a Black Future (Scottish BAME Writers Network, 2021) 

• 2020 Mixtape: Writers of Colour Audio Anthology (Scottish BAME Writers Network, 2020)

• The Last Good Year: New Writing Scotland 38 (Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2020)

• Handbook for 2021: The Bread & Rose Poetry Award Anthology (Culture Matters, 2020)

• Future: Book Week Scotland 2020 Anthology (Scottish Book Trust, 2020)

• In Other Words (Metal Culture, 2020)

• Neu Reekie Untitled Three (Polygon, 2020) 

• Field Notes on Survival (Bad Betty Press, 2020) 

• Stay at Home! Poems and Prose for Children in Lockdown (Cranachan Publishing, 2020)

• SLAM! You're Gonna Wanna Hear This (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2020)

• The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press, 2019)

• Islands are but Mountains: New poetry from the United Kingdom (Platypus Press, 2019) 

• Poems from a Green and Blue Planet (Hodder Children’s Books, 2019) 

• Anti-Hate Anthology (Spoken Word London, 2019)  

• Proud: Stories, Poetry and Art on the Theme of Pride (Stripes, 2019) 

• Second Place Rosette: Poems about Britain (The Emma Press, 2018) 

• The Dizziness of Freedom: A Poetry Anthology on Mental Health (Bad Betty Press, 2018) 

• Words That Burn (Amnesty International UK, 2017) 

• Give the Ball to the Poet (Bounce Bookshelf, 2014) 

• Black & Gay in the UK (Team Angelica Publishing, 2014) 

• Flight: Pt 1: An Anthology of New Writing (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2009) 

Magazines and journals: 

• The Aftershock Review, Volume 2

• Anthropocene 

• bath magg, Issue 6 

• Covert Literary Magazine, Editions 1 & 4

• Dazed & Confused 

• Butcher’s Dog, Issues 15 & 20

• Feminist Dissent, Issue 4 

• Fourteen Poems, Issue 4 

• Finished Creatures, Issues 2 & 5 

• Gay Times, December 2017 

• GEEKED Magazine, Issue 8

• Glass Poetry, Pulsamos: LGBTQ Poets Respond to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting

• Going Down Swinging, Issue 38

• Gutter, Issue 24 

• HYSTERIA,  Issue 5

• Index on Censorship Magazine, Autumn 2019

• Ink Sweat and Tears

• Magma, Issues 86 & 90

• The Menteur, Spring Issue 2015

• Middleground, Issues 2 & 8

• Modern Poetry in Translation: Our Small Universe, 2019 Number 1

• The Moth Magazine, Issue 35 Winter 2018 

• Prairie Schooner, Volume 97, Number 3, Fall 2023

• The Scores, Issue 5 

• The Selkie 

• The Stockholm Review of Literature 

• STRIKE! Magazine, Issue 13 

• Under the Radar, Issue 27

• Wasafiri, Issue 98 

POETRY FILMS 

• Two Black Boys in Paradise (2025) - One6th / Dir. Baz Sells 

• The Black Flamingo (2018) - Tate Britain / Dir. Lisa Cazzato Vieyra 

• White Teeth (2016) - Dir. Daniel Spencer 

• Smooth Floors & Open Doors (2013) - 32LDN / Dir. Jake Green 

• Rome is Eternal (2013) - Channel 4 / Lemonade Money 

• Key to the City (2013) - Tea Films 

• Colouring Book Reality (2012) - MTV Voices / Tea Films 

• I Am Nobody's Nigger (2012) - SB.TV / Dir. Paris Zarcilla 

• More Than This (2010) - Dir. Remi Weekes 

MEMBERSHIPS

• Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) 

• The Black Writers’ Guild 

• Public Library Remuneration (PLR) 

• The Society of Authors (SoA)