Ronnie McGrath

Ronnie McGrath (aka ronsurreal) is a postmodern, neo-surrealist writer, poet, and visual artist interested in the absurd and avant-garde. A former musician and Creative Writing Lecturer at the London College of Communication, he teaches Creative Writing at Stroud and Gloucestershire College, Imperial College London, and he is an associate lecturer of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Ronnie also facilitates creative writing workshops in London and Gloucestershire as a therapeutic tool for mental well-being.

Ronnie’s published work includes Black lives Have Always Mattered, Gumbo Talk, Watermelon and The Penguin Book of New Black Writing.

Ronnie is the co-founder of Black Ark Media, with DJ High Priest Derrick McLean, which aims to shed critical light on what it means to be Black and British through meaningful conversations and socially conscious art in a time of perpetual change.

‘As a surrealist poet Ronnie McGrath is forever experimenting with the shape, rhythm and sound. Ronnie bends language because as he says reality is up for grabs. It is Ronnie’s courage to take risks with the landscape of the word that produces work, which touches our hearts and touches our soul.’ —Michael McMillan

‘Poetry is a spoken art. Ronnie McGrath speaks-sings!-poetry with great authority. In the blazing tradition of The Last Poets, McGrath is a powerful performance poet. He’s also a wonderfully gifted sculptor-an artist of social consciousness; an artist on many, many fronts. Listen to him! He will inspire you.’ —Clarence Major

‘The Basquiat of contemporary writing’ - Salt Books