Patience Agbabi FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet and performer who emphasizes the spoken word. Although her poetry hits hard in addressing contemporary themes, it often makes use of formal constraints, including traditional poetic forms. She has described herself as "bicultural" and bisexual. Issues of racial and gender identity feature in her poetry. She is celebrated "for paying equal homage to literature and performance" and for work that "moves fluidly and nimbly between cultures, dialects, voices; between page and stage." In 2017 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Early life and education Patience Agbabi was born in London to Nigerian parents. From a young age, she was privately fostered by a white English family and moved at the age of 12 from Sussex to North Wales, where she was then raised in Colwyn Bay. She studied English language and literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. She earned an MA in Creative Writing, the Arts and Education from the University of Sussex in 2002, and in September that year was appointed Associate Creative Writing Lecturer at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Poetry and performances Agbabi began performing on the London club circuit in 1995 as a member of the performance group Atomic Lip, which was once described as "poetry's first pop group." Their final tour occurred in 1998, titled "Quadrophonix," which mixed live and video performance in each show. In 1996, she worked on a performance piece called FO(U)R WOMEN, with Adeola Agbebiyi and Dorothea Smartt, first performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and touring from 1995 to 1998. She has cited among her influences Janis Joplin, Carol Ann Duffy, Chaucer, and various aspects of contemporary music and culture. Agbabi's childhood love of cake is apparent in her poem "Eat Me". The poems in her first book R.A.W., published in 1995, focus on her experiences regarding Thatcherism, urban life, and racial and sexual politics. The style of these poems "owe much to the rhythms, verbal and associational genius of rap". Her next collection was Transformatrix (2000), a commentary on contemporary Britain that draws inspiration from popular music forms. "Transformatix" also contains Agbabi's first published adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, reimagining the Wife of Bath as the Nigerian "Mrs. Alice Ebi Bafa". In 2008, Agbabi published Bloodshot Monochrome, a collection that, as described by one reviewer, highlights social and political issues, captures and considers