Dean Atta author page

Dean Atta biography

Dean Atta is a British poet and author of books for children, young adults and adults. His first poetry collection, I Am Nobody’s N****r, was published by The Westbourne Press in 2013 and was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize.

His debut young adult novel in verse, The Black Flamingo, was published by Hachette Children’s Group in the United Kingdom in 2019 and by Balzer + Bray in the United States in 2020. The book follows Michael, a mixed-race teenager who explores identity, family and drag performance.

The Black Flamingo won the 2020 Stonewall Book Award in the Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature category. It was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Jhalak Prize, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the YA Book Prize.

Atta’s other young adult novels in verse include Only on the Weekends and I Can’t Even Think Straight. His picture books include Confetti and Auntie’s Bangles, both illustrated by Alea Marley and published by Orchard Books.

In 2026, Two Black Boys in Paradise, the animated short film by Baz Sells, Dean Atta and Ben Jackson, won the BAFTA Film Award for British Short Animation.