Dannie Abse
(United Kingdom, 1923–2014)
Dannie Abse was an esteemed poet, author, playwright and former doctor. He was a hugely …
Fleur Adcock
(New Zealand, 1934)
Fleur Adcock has been one of the most influential poets in Britain in the past thirty …
Patience Agbabi
(United Kingdom, 1965)
Patience Agbabi is one Britain’s most prominent spoken word poets and a tireless …
Sascha Aurora Akhtar
(Pakistan, 1976)
Sascha Aurora Akhtar was born in Pakistan, and was educated there and in the USA. Her …
Mir Mahfuz Ali
(Bangladesh, 1958)
Mir Mahfuz Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1958. He studied at Essex University …
Moniza Alvi
(Pakistan, 1954)
Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore in Pakistan, the daughter of a Pakistani father and an …
Ifor ap Glyn
(United Kingdom, 1961)
Born in 1961, Ifor ap Glyn is a poet, playwright, historian, producer and current …
Mona Arshi
(United Kingdom, 1970)
Mona Arshi began writing poetry in 2008, after working as a human rights lawyer for …
Tiffany Atkinson
(Germany, 1972)
Tiffany Atkinson was born in 1972 in Berlin to an army family and has lived in Wales …
Simon Barraclough
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Simon Barraclough is one of the generation of poets who came out of the workshops of …
Nazand Begikhani
(Iraqi Kurdistan, 1964)
Nazand Begikhani was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1964. She has been living in exile …
Jo Bell
(United Kingdom, 1967)
Jo Bell is a unique force in British poetry, bringing a large personality and boundless …
Jay Bernard
(England, 1988)
Jay Bernard was born in London in 1988. She was a winner of the Poetry Society’s Foyle …
Liz Berry
(United Kingdom, 1980)
Liz Berry is a new poet at the intersection of several current trends in UK poetry. Her …
Emily Berry
(United Kingdom, 1981)
Emily Berry was born in 1981 and, other than time at university in Leeds, is …
Caroline Bird
(England, 1986)
Caroline Bird was born in Leeds in 1986, grew up in London, and is currently studying …
Jean Bleakney
(United Kingdom, 1956)
Jean Bleakney was born in Newry, Co. Down and now lives in Belfast where she works in a …
Elisabeth Bletsoe
(United Kingdom, 1960)
“Elisabeth’s poetry is not just highly unusual, it is an anomaly. Although at times it …
Malika Booker
(United Kingdom, 1970)
Malika Booker is a British poet, performer and playwright of Grenadian and Guyanese …
Andy Brown
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Andy Brown is Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. …
Colette Bryce
(United Kingdom, 1970)
Born in Derry in 1970, Colette Bryce lived in London for many years before moving to …
John Burnside
(United Kingdom, 1955)
John Burnside was born in Dunfermline, Fife, between the firths of Forth and Tay, in …
James Byrne
(United Kingdom, 1977)
James Byrne is the founder and editor of the international poetry …
Vahni Capildeo
(Trinidad, 1973)
Vahni Capildeo arrived in the UK in 1991 from Trinidad, where she was born. After …
Ciaran Carson
(Northern Ireland, 1948)
Ciaran Carson was born and grew up in Belfast, where Irish was the first language of …
Kayo Chingonyi
(Zambia, 1987)
Kayo Chingonyi was born in Mufulira, Zambia in 1987 and moved to Newcastle in the UK at …
Polly Clark
(Canada, 1968)
Polly Clark was born in Toronto, Canada and brought up in Britain. She has published …
Gillian Clarke
(Wales, 1937)
Gillian Clarke was born in Cardiff in 1937 and is a poet, playwright, editor, …
Mandy Coe
(United Kingdom, 1957)
Mandy Coe is the author of six books: four collections of prize-winning poetry, one …
Julia Copus
(United Kingdom, 1969)
Julia Copus is often described as a musical poet, a characteristic she shares with her …
Kathryn Daszkiewicz
(United Kingdom, 1961)
Kathryn Daszkiewicz was born and brought up in Gosforth, near Newcastle, in the north …
Maura Dooley
(United Kingdom, 1957)
Maura Dooley (1957) is of Irish extraction, but was born in the English town of Truro. …
Jane Draycott
(United Kingdom, 1954)
Jane Draycott was born in 1954 and studied at King’s College, London, and then Bristol …
Carol Ann Duffy
(United Kingdom, 1955)
Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary …
Ian Duhig
(United Kingdom, 1954)
Duhig is known as a modern balladeer, using folklore and medieval stories to satirise …
Helen Dunmore
(United Kingdom, 1952)
Helen Dunmore was born in Yorkshire and studied at the University of York. She began to …
Menna Elfyn
(United Kingdom, 1951)
Menna Elfyn was born in 1951 and lives in Llandysul, west Wales. She has published …
Steve Ely
(United Kingdom, 1965)
Steve Ely is one of the most exhilarating poets currently working in the UK and is …
Paul Farley
(United Kingdom, 1965)
Farley’s 2009 collection, Field Recordings, is a substantial gathering of poems …
Vicki Feaver
(United Kingdom, 1943)
With just three collections in over 30 years, Vicki Feaver has nevertheless made a …
Elaine Feinstein
(United Kingdom, 1930)
Elaine Feinstein is a poet, novelist, biographer, playwright and critic. Born in …
James Fenton
(UK, 1949)
James Fenton is a poet for whom ivory towers have long ceased to exist. His work is …
Martin Figura
(England, 1956)
Martin Figura was born in Liverpool and lives in Norwich. He is a qualified accountant …
Roy Fisher
(United Kingdom, 1930)
Roy Fisher, one of the significant British Modernist poets of the mid- and late …
Leontia Flynn
(United Kingdom, 1974)
Leontia Flynn was born in County Down in 1974 and currently lives in Belfast. After …
Linda France
(United Kingdom, 1958)
Author of seven full collections of poetry and many pamphlets and collaborations, and …
John Glenday
(Scotland, 1952)
John Glenday was born in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, in 1952, and lives in …
Michelle Green
(United Kingdom, 1976)
Michelle Green was born in Portsmouth and brought up in Cornwall and Canada. Her poems …
Lavinia Greenlaw
(United Kingdom, 1962)

Andrew Greig
(United Kingdom, 1951)
Andrew Greig was born in Bannockburn, Scotland, and grew up in Anstruther, Fife. He was …
Philip Gross
(England, 1952)
Philip Gross was born in 1952 in Cornwall, and grew up in Plymouth. With a Cornish …
Jen Hadfield
(United Kingdom, 1978)
Nothing is permanent in the poetry of Jen Hadfield (‘I don’t know what it …
Alan Halsey
(United Kingdom, 1949)
Born in London in 1949, Halsey ran the Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye for almost twenty …
David Harsent
(United Kingdom, 1942)
David Harsent won the 2005 Forward Prize for Legion, which was also shortlisted for the …
Lee Harwood
(United Kingdom, 1939–2015)
Lee Harwood’s poetry presents a haunting pleasure to the reader – images …
Cecil Helman
(South Africa, 1944)
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Cecil Helman qualified as a medical doctor before …
Paul Henry
(United Kingdom, 1959)
Paul Henry was born in 1959 and lives in Newport, South Wales. He is a Welsh speaker …
WN Herbert
(United Kingdom, 1961)
WN Herbert – called by Don Paterson “One maverick genius of a …
Tracey Herd
(United Kingdom, 1968)
Tracy Herd was born in 1968 in East Kilbride. She now lives in Dundee where she works …
Sarah Howe
(Hong Kong, 1983)
Sarah Howe is a British poet, academic and editor. Born in Hong Kong to an English …
Frieda Hughes
(United Kingdom, 1960)
Frieda Hughes published six children’s books before she finally summoned enough courage …
Elin Ap Hywel
(United Kingdom, 1962)
Elin Ap Hywel received Welsh as her native language when she was born in Colwyn Bay, …
Helen Ivory
(United Kingdom, 1969)
Helen Ivory is a poet and artist who, together with her husband Martin Figura, runs the …
A. B. Jackson
(United Kingdom, 1965)
A.B. (Andrew Buchanan) Jackson was born in 1965 in Glasgow and raised in the north-west …
Christopher James
(United Kingdom, 1975)
Christopher James won the National Poetry Competition in March 2009 for his poem …
Kathleen Jamie
(Scotland, 1962)
Kathleen Jamie is a leading figure in a generation of distinguished Scottish poets that …
Maria Jastrzębska
(Poland, 1953)
Maria Jastrzębska  was born in Warsaw in 1953 and came to England as a small …
Anthony Joseph
(Trinidad, 1966)
Anthony Joseph was born in Trinidad and has lived in England since 1989. He writes …
Jackie Kay
(United Kingdom, 1962)
Jackie Kay is a poet, playwright and novelist. She was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and …
Luke Kennard
(United Kingdom, 1981)
In 2007 Luke Kennard became the youngest ever poet to be shortlisted for the Forward …
Mimi Khalvati
(Iran, 1944)
Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran, but grew up in England, and has made London her …
Shamshad Khan
(United Kingdom, 1964)
Shamshad Khan was conceived in Karachi and born in Britain. Her published works include …
David Kinloch
(United Kingdom, 1959)
David Kinloch was born in Glasgow in 1959 and educated at Glasgow and Oxford …
Zaffar Kunial
(United Kingdom, 1975)
Zaffar Kunial is a Hebden Bridge-based poet whose impact on the UK scene belies a small …
Nick Laird
(United Kingdom, 1975)
Nick Laird is one of a new generation of poets – including Leontia Flynn, Alan …
Michael Laskey
(United Kingdom, 1944)
Michael Laskey was born in Lichfield in Staffordshire. He read English at St John’s …
Melissa Lee-Houghton
(United Kingdom, 1982)
Melissa Lee-Houghton is at the forefront of a new strand of confessional poetry in the …
Gwyneth Lewis
(United Kingdom, 1959)
Gwyneth Lewis was born in 1959 in Cardiff, Wales. She attended a bilingual school in …
Tim Liardet
(United Kingdom, 1959)
Tim Liardet was born in London in 1959 and was educated at the University of York. …
Fran Lock
(United Kingdom, 1982)
Fran Lock’s poetry takes its cues from a broad swathe of sources, ranging from …
Hannah Lowe
(United Kingdom, 1976)
Hannah Lowe is one of a generation of younger poets whose work celebrates the …
Roddy Lumsden
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Roddy Lumsden is a Scottish poet, editor and poetry teacher, based in London, whose …
Glyn Maxwell
(United Kingdom, 1962)
Glyn Maxwell’s poetry is noted for its everyday vocabulary, used in tight metrical …
Chris McCabe
(United Kingdom, 1977)
Chris McCabe was born in Liverpool in 1977, grew up there and studied for a degree in …
Karen McCarthy Woolf
(United Kingdom)
The title poem of Karen McCarthy Woolf’s pamphlet – a Poetry Book Society …
John McCullough
(United Kingdom, 1978)
John McCullough was born in Watford in 1978 and grew up there during the eighties and …
Roger McGough
(England, 1937)
Roger McGough was born in Liverpool in 1937, and his career has been inextricably bound …
Medbh McGuckian
(United Kingdom, 1950)
Medbh McGuckian was born in 1950 in Belfast where she currently lectures in Creative …
Patrick McGuinness
(Tunisia, 1968)
Patrick McGuinness is that vanishing figure: the multi-lingual, multi-cultural, …
Ian McMillan
(United Kingdom, 1956)
Ian McMillan is a poet and performer from Yorkshire, as well as a playwright, …
Andrew McMillan
(United Kingdom, 1988)
Andrew McMillan is one of a brilliant generation of young British poets in their …
Kei Miller
(Jamaica, 1978)
Kei Miller is a linguistically inventive and erudite Jamaican poet living and working …
Adrian Mitchell
(United Kingdom, 1932–2008)
“Joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away …
Tony Mitton
(Tripolitania, 1951)
Tony Mitton was born in North Africa. At the age of nine he came to England and …
Martin Mooney
(United Kingdom, 1964)
Martin Mooney was born in Belfast to parents of a mixed religious background, and grew …
Kim Moore
(United Kingdom, 1981)
Kim Moore was born in Leicester and moved to Cumbria in 2004, where she now lives and …
Esther Morgan
(United Kingdom, 1970)
Esther Morgan is the author of three books of poetry, of which the third, Grace, …
David Morley
(United Kingdom, 1964)
David Morley, an ecologist and naturalist by background, is one of the most …
Helen Mort
(United Kingdom, 1985)
Helen Mort was born in Sheffield in 1985. As a child, she loved language in general and …
Brian Moses
(United Kingdom, 1950)
Brian Moses was the first real live children's poet I ever met. He visited the …
Daljit Nagra
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Born in 1966, to Indian immigrant parents, Daljit Nagra was raised in London, and …
Alice Oswald
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Alice Oswald is one of the most important poets writing in Britain today, and also one …
Ruth Padel
(United Kingdom, 1947)
“Ruth Padel combines two major gifts. She is a distinguished poet and a quite …
Don Paterson
(United Kingdom, 1963)
The Scottish jazz guitarist Don Paterson (Dundee, 1963) ‘got poetry’ watching …
Pascale Petit
(France)
Pascale Petit was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales and lives in London. She …
Mario Petrucci
(United Kingdom, 1958)
Mario Petrucci is a prolific and powerful poet, known for his themed collections that …
Ian Pindar
(United Kingdom, 1970)
Ian Pindar was born in London and lives in Oxfordshire. His first collection of poetry, …
Clare Pollard
(United Kingdom, 1978)
Clare Pollard grew up in Bolton and later read English at Cambridge University. She now …
Jacob Polley
(United Kingdom, 1975)
‘The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible’. This …
Peter Porter
(Australia, 1929)
Peter Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1929. He moved to London in 1951, and …
Frances Presley
(United Kingdom, 1952)
The great majority of Frances Presley’s work is gathered into the last two volumes …
Richard Price
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Richard Price was born in Reading in 1966 and grew up in Renfrewshire, south-west of …
Shazea Quraishi
(Pakistan, 1964)
Shazea Quraishi is one of a number of younger black and Asian women poets currently …
Deryn Rees-Jones
(United Kingdom, 1968)
Deryn Rees-Jones was born in Liverpool in 1968. She read English for her undergraduate …
Denise Riley
(United Kingdom, 1948)
Denise Riley’s poetry combines a bold and stylish performance of the self (whoever she …
Peter Riley
(United Kingdom, 1940)
Peter Riley must now count as one of our ‘senior poets’, with a large back-catalogue of …
Sam Riviere
(UK, 1981)
Britain is currently enjoying something of a poetry renaissance, fuelled by a …
Ruby Robinson
(United Kingdom, 1985)
Ruby Robinson’s debut collection, Every Little Sound (Pavilion Press, …
Neil Rollinson
(United Kingdom, 1960)
Neil Rollinson was born in 1960 in Yorkshire. He studied at Newcastle University and …
Stephen Romer
(United Kingdom, 1957)
Stephen Romer was born in Hertfordshire in 1957; he has lived in France since 1981. He …
Jo Shapcott
(United Kingdom, 1953)
Jo Shapcott was born in 1953 in London and educated in Dublin and Oxford and at …
Warsan Shire
(Kenya, 1988)
Warsan Shire showed her first poem to her father at the age of 11, won an international …
Penelope Shuttle
(United Kingdom, 1947)
“In my poetry I give primacy to the breath. For me it is the way the poem breathes …
John Siddique
(United Kingdom, 1964)
John Siddique is a poet, whose first full collection of poetry The Prize …
Lemn Sissay
(United Kingdom, 1967)
Lemn Sissay is a poet and a performer. He has published several volumes of poetry, …
Dorothea Smartt
(United Kingdom, 1963)
Dorothea Smartt has been a prominent voice for black women poets since the 1980s, …
Pauline Stainer
(United Kingdom, 1941)
Pauline Stainer has always worked outside the metropolitan poetry community. Yet she …
John Stammers
(United Kingdom, 1954)
John Stammers was born in London in 1954. His first collection Panoramic …
Greta Stoddart
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Greta Stoddart is a subtle, surprising poet whose work seems to hinge on those moments …
Jon Stone
(United Kingdom, 1983)
To say that Jon Stone has just, at the time of writing, had his first full collection …
Michael Symmons Roberts
(United Kingdom, 1963)
Michael Symmons Roberts is a poet, librettist and novelist. His poetry is known for its …
George Szirtes
(Hungary, 1948)
George Szirtes was born in Hungary in 1948, but fled during the Hungarian Uprising of …
Kate Tempest
(United Kingdom, 1985)
The poet and rapper Kate Tempest is only in her 20s but well on her way to …
Jack Underwood
(United Kingdom, 1984)
Jack Underwood is a regular participant in the London poetry community, and lectures in …
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
(United Kingdom, 1966)
Born into a seafaring family, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch grew up in New Quay, Ceredigion. …
Jane Yeh
(United States, 1971)
With just two collections, Jane Yeh has established herself in the UK poetry world as …
 
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