User:Muslimpoets/Lori 'Zakariyya' King

Lori ‘Zakariyya’ King

Lori ‘Zakariyya’ King is a British performance poet – under the pseudonym ‘zkthepoet’ - and writer, from Richmond, Surrey and based in the Isle of Dogs, East London. He is the current holder of the Stephen Lawrence Poetry Prize.

King was shortlisted by the Muslim Writers Awards in 2011 in two categories and came away as the winner of Unpublished Poet of the Year and runner-up for both Unpublished Short Story and Writer of the Year. He followed this in the year afterward by winning the Apples & Snakes Greenwich Campus Slam and the Farrago Summer Slam. In April of 2012 he was awarded the inaugural Stephen Lawrence Poetry Prize, presented by Doreen Lawrence and judged by Sophie Mayer.

In 2009, as his performance poetry career began to take off somewhat, appearing on ITV and BBC Radio, he enrolled in an undergraduate course at the University of Greenwich. He graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in English with Creative Writing three years later. His mentors at Greenwich included Adam Mars-Jones, Emily Critchley and Cherry Smyth. At his graduation ceremony he became the first graduate to read out a poem. Following on from this he undertook a part-time PGCE course at Brunel University in Uxbridge.

He has been published in the literary magazines Stanley the Whale and Intentional Walk as well as by the Society of Curious Thought and Latitude Lookout. He is presently engaged in professional wrestling training with Lucha Britannia and IPW:UK.

King is married with two children. His younger brother is Levi King, Hanworth Villa FC forward.