Ben Okri is a poet and novelist and has published many books, including The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize, and The Age of Magic. He has also written several poetry collections, including An African Elegy, Mental Fight and Wild. His work has been translated into 27 languages and won numerous international prizes. Born in Nigeria, he lives in London.

In Rise Like Lions, Booker Prize winning writer Ben Okri has compiled a collection of poems that celebrate the many voices of politics, from polemics and rallying cries to lyrics and meditations. Many of these poems have resonated with readers over lifetimes and through generations, from William Blake to Marvin Gaye. In exploring the impact political poems have on ideas, vision, protest, change and truth, Okri demonstrates how the need for this strand of poetry is as great as it has ever been, and its inspiration just as powerful.