Sissay has written about his own upbringing in his memoir, My Name Is Why.
He writes about how he and his Ethopian mother were taken to a home for unmarried mothers in Wigan.
He was placed into foster care against his mother’s wishes, and renamed Norman – a name he only realised was not his own several years later.
Speaking about his life, and his interest in familial relationships, he said: “Through not having a family, I’ve got to see some of the magic of family.
“That’s what the site’s about. It’s about seeing the power of family, in the negative and the positive.”
The website he is talking about is a place where anyone can add their own memories, photographs or thoughts on family life. , external
“It’s all just there for people,” he said.
“One of the joys of the website is that people can go to it and they can see that family is so many things.
“We sometimes have a fixed idea of what family is and actually that is the biggest mistake, because it is so, so diverse, the experiences of family, and that’s the joy of the site.
“At Bradford Literature Festival I’m going to be talking about this, showing people some of the very funny messages people have left there.”
One of these stories was written by a mother who said she regularly gets in her car to follow the sunset with her children – driving from the valley where she lives up over the hills to see the sun set over and over again.
“These stories about family are worth their weight in gold, you know,” said Sissay.
“Family at the base is a collection of stories between one group of people. It’s wonderful, it really is.”