Songs We Learn from Trees: An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry

Chris Beckett is a poet and translator based in London. He grew up in Addis Ababa in the 1960s, capital of Haile Selassie’s glamorous barefoot empire (as he writes in the Preface to Ethiopia Boy). Chris has published two enthusiastically reviewed poetry collections from Carcanet, Ethiopia Boy (2013) and Tenderfoot (2020), imitating Ethiopian praise forms to explore issues of love and hunger; also, with Alemu Tebeje, the first ever anthology of Ethiopian Amharic poetry in English, Songs We Learn from Trees (2020). His poem The broom upside down was commended in the 2024 National Poetry Competition and his books as well as individual poems have won or been shortlisted for awards such as the Poetry London Competition, Ted Hughes Award and Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. His poems, reviews and translations have appeared in leading journals like Poetry Review, Wasafiri, PN Review, Words Without Borders, Modern Poetry in Translation, also in the Library of Congress and on BBC radio’s The Verb. Baritone/composer Roderick Williams’ setting, 3 Songs from Ethiopia Boy, was premiered by Chineke! Orchestra in the Southbank Centre in 2019 and repeated as part of their 10th anniversary concert in 2025 and numerous times on BBC Radio 3. Visit Chris Beckett's website.