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s r e t i r W 4 - 7 October 2012
Guest Writers • 2012 Andy Brown’s most recent collection is The Fool and the Physician (Salt, 2012), based on the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, which James Sutherland-Smith reviewed as ‘an erotic masterpiece’. His recent books also include the ecopoetry of Goose Music (co-authored with John Burnside), The Storm Berm, and a Selected Poems 19962006: Fall of the Rebel Angels. His work appears in several anthologies including Identity Parade (Bloodaxe) and This Line is Not for Turning (Cinnamon). His many current projects include co-editing a major new collection of Poetry and Medicine, a book of critical essays on the poet Kelvin Corcoran, and new translations of poems by Borges. He is Director of Creative Writing at Exeter University. n n n n n n n n n n n Don Paterson was born in 1963 in Dundee, Scotland. He moved to London in 1984 to work as a jazz musician, and began writing poetry around the same time. His collections of poetry are Nil Nil (Faber, 1993), God’s Gift to Women (Faber, 1997), The Eyes (after Antonio Machado, Faber, 1999), Landing Light (Faber, 2003; Graywolf, 2004), Orpheus (a version of Rilke’s Die Sonette an Orpheus, Faber, 2006) and Rain (Faber, 2009; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). He has published two books of aphorism, The Book of Shadows (Picador, 2004) and The Blind Eye (Faber, 2007), and a compendium, Best Thought, Worst Thought (Graywolf, 2008). He has also edited a number of anthologies. His poetry has won a number of awards, including the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, and the T S Eliot Prize on two occasions. Most recently, Rain won the 2009 Forward prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the English Association; he received the OBE in 2008 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010. He teaches poetry at the University of St Andrews, and since 1996 has been poetry editor at Picador MacMillan. He continues to perform and compose. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n Fiona Benson won an Eric Gregory Award in 2006 and has been published in a wide range of journals including Poetry Review, The Times Literary Supplement and The London Review of Books. Her pamphlet, Faber New Poets 1 was published in 2009. She is currently teaching for The Poetry School in Exeter where she lives with her husband James Meredith and daughter Isla. She will be reading from her pamphlet Dunmonia, a series of poems inspired by Devon commissioned by Wordquest Devon and Cyprus Well. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n Hilary Menos was born in Luton, studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford, then worked as a food journalist in London. She now runs a 100 acre organic farm near Totnes . In 2010 her book Berg, published by Seren Books, won the Forward Prize for best first collection. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
Julie-ann Rowell started writing poetry while studying for her MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She won first prize in the New Writer Poetry Competition for a short collection, and was runner-up in the BT Section of the National Poetry Competition in 2000. She has achieved awards in other competitions, including first prize in the Frogmore Poetry Competition, and has been published in many magazines (The Stand, Agenda, New Welsh Review, The Reader, The SHOp, The Moth, Chapman) and various anthologies. Her pamphlet, Convergence (Brodie Press), was granted a PBS Award, and her first full collection, Letters North, was nominated for the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize for best first collection in Britain and Ireland, 2011. She teaches creative writing classes in Bristol. Her pamphlet, The Sun at Midnight, is published this year by Braga Press. It features poems inspired by the Orkney Islands. n n n n Christopher Southgate was born in Exeter and now lives in the Chagford area. He has been a biochemist, a bookseller, a househusband, and a chaplain at Exeter University and at Wonford Hospital. He has been writing and publishing poetry since the mid1980s. In 1997 he produced A Love and its Sounding, a verse biography of TS Eliot. Since then he has published three major collections with Shoestring Press - Beyond the Bitter Wind, Easing the Gravity Field, and most recently A Gash in the Darkness, which came out this April. In the 1990s Chris coedited the magazine Otter: New Devon Poetry. He has been a Hawthornden Fellow, and has been commended in the National Poetry Competition. He has performed his poetry widely from the Edinburgh Fringe to Los Angeles. When not writing poetry he teaches theology at Exeter. n n n n n n n n n n n Anthony Wilson is a poet, writing tutor and lecturer at the University of Exeter. Riddance, his fourth collection of poetry, has just been published. Love for Now, a prose memoir, is due from Impress Books in September 2012. Anthony has held writing residencies at The Poetry Society, The Times Educational Supplement, The Poetry Trust and Tate Britain, and he works as a tutor for the Arvon Foundation. He can be found online at www.anthonywilsonpoetry.com n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n Eleanor Rees’ pamphlet collection Feeding Fire received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002, and her first full length collection Andraste’s Hair (Salt, 2007) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards. Her second collection was Eliza and the Bear (Salt, 2009). She is writing a PhD on the role of the local poet, based on her extensive collaborative work with writers, musicians, artists and local groups from her home city of Liverpool. n n n n n n Jaime Robles’ first Shearsman collection was Anime Animus Anima (2010). Recent poems have been published in Agenda, Conjunctions, Jacket, New American Writing, Shadowtrain and Stride. She has received writing and publishing awards from the Fund for Poetry and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her next book, Hoard (Shearsman 2013), is based on the Roman-Anglo Saxon caches of jewellery found in Suffolk. Her PhD comprises these new poems and a study of ‘The Dark Lyric’. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
James Simpson has collaborated with the artist Carolyn Trant on his poetry collections Hunting the Wren (Parvenu/Actaeon Press, 2007) and The Untenanted Room (Agenda Editions, 2011). His work has appeared in The London Magazine, Resurgence, Agenda and The Hardy Society Journal and has been anthologised in Our Common Ground (Silverdart Publishing). He won a Jerwood/Arvon Award, and is writing a PhD exploring the ecopoetic role of ‘the untenanted space’. n n n n n n n n n n n Jacky Tarleton’s PhD in Poetry comprises a critical study of poet Louis MacNeice and philosopher Gaston Bachelard, alongside a collection of her own poems which explore the ‘significant moment’. Her poems have recently been published in The Grist Anthology 2012, South, Vortex and the William Morris Society Newsletter. She was runner-up in the Poetry Society’s 2011 Stanza Poetry Competition. n n n n n n n n n Lucy English is acclaimed performance poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She has performed at many festivals and literature events including Hay on Wye, Edinburgh, Ways with Words and Galway Poetry Festival. She has toured Canada, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka for the British Council. She was part of the Apples and Snakes ‘Temptation’ tour in 2005 and she was artistic director for the ‘Exposed’ poetry tour in 2006. Her latest work, ‘Flash’ was a multi-media poetry show with fellow poets Glenn Carmichael, Anna Freeman and Sara-Jane Arbury. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n Graham Burchell was born in Canterbury and now lives in Dawlish, Devon. He has lived in a host of places in between including Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Tenerife, Mexico, France, Chile and the United States. He has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. His collection Vermeer’s Corner was published in the USA by Foothills Publishing in 2008. He frequently gives readings and runs poetry workshops in the West Country and further afield. You can find out more at his website: http://www.gburchell.com. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n Jackie Juno is stand-up poet, singer and Grand Bard of Exeter. She has appeared at many festivals and cabarets from Dublin to Amsterdam, and hosts HOOT! Cabarets in Devon. She lives on the edge of Dartmoor with her husband, young daughter and large collection of unusual hats. n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n The Jon Freeman has worked as a gardener, tree surgeon, carpenter and as an archaeologist. He now likes to think of himself as a human, a performance poet, and storyteller. He is the current Bard of Exeter. In 2012 he came second in the Writers and Artists Yearbook short story competition, and was published as a poet in the anthology Inspired By Tagore. He believes in the power of the word, if only he could remember where he left it. He is still searching. n n n n n n n