John Lyons, winner of the WindRush Arts Achiever Award 2003, was born in Trinidad and educated as an artist and art educator at Goldsmiths College and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne respectively. During those years without a grant he had to work. Some of his part-time jobs included: early morning factory cleaner, evening waiter, postman, and shift-work hospital porter. John’s writing naturally grew from his addictive reading of novels and poetry at a very early age; this passion continued throughout his art education years. After he won his first Peterloo Poetry Prize he became recognized as a poet. Other major prizes followed. He published four collections and contributed to numerous anthologies; read on radio, television and in many festivals; was part-time creative writing lecturer at Bolton Institute of Higher Education; became an Arvon tutor; was co-founder and director of Hourglass Studio Gallery, promoting the visual arts and Creative writing in the Community.