Innovative poetry in Britain today

Thurston, S

Abstract

Innovative Poetry in Britain has undergone considerable change in how it is published and read in recent years. This article examines Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain’s 1998 introduction to their anthology OTHER: British and Irish Poetry since 1970, to derive concepts useful in surveying the field. These concepts include: the poetics of displacement, the politics of British identity, and the tradition of dissent. The article introduces the work of three innovative poets: Robert Sheppard (b. 1955), Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962) and Andrea Brady (b. 1974), in order to illustrate the dynamic range of this writing.

Citation

Thurston, S. (2010). Innovative poetry in Britain today. Revista canaria de estudios ingleses, 15-30

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses
• Print ISSN: 0211-5913
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 60
• Pages: 15-30
• Keywords: Andrea Brady; British Poetry; Caroline Bergvall; Innovative Poetry ; Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain; Robert Sheppard; Poetics
• Publisher URL: http://webpages.ull.es/users/rceing
• Additional Information: References : Works Cited Adair, Gilbert. Letter to Robert Sheppard. Pages, page nos. 65-72 (1988): 68. Barry, Peter. The Poetry Wars. Great Wilbraham: Salt Publishing, 2007. Brady, Andrea. Tracking Wildfire: a Verse Essay on Obscurity and Illumination. Dispatx, 2007. Viewable at: http://www.dispatx.com/show/item.php?item=2062 ———— (with Scott Thurston). Unpublished interview transcript, 2009. Bergvall, Caroline. Éclat. New York: Ubu Editions, 2004. Viewable at: http://www.carolinebergvall.com/content/text/Bergvall-Eclat.pdf. ———— ‘Social Engagement of Writing.’ Viewable at: http://poetrycenter.arizona.edu/conceptualpoetry/cp_media/misc/bergvall.pdf. ———— Cropper. Southhampton: Torque Press, 2008. ———— (with Scott Thurston). Unpublished interview transcript, 2008. Caddel, Richard and Peter Quartermain, eds. OTHER: British and Irish Poetry since 1970. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press, 1998. Edwards, Ken. “The Two Poetries.” Angelaki 3.1 (April 2000): 25-36. Sheppard, Robert. Far Language: Poetics and Linguistically Innovative Poetry 1978-1997. Exeter: Stride, 1999. ———— “The Poetics of Writing: The Writing of Poetics,” in Creative Writing Conference 1999 Proceedings. Eds. J. Turner, D. Broderick and P, Hartley. Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University, 1999. 99-109. ———— The Poetry of Saying. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005. ———— Complete Twentieth Century Blues. Great Wilbraham: Salt Publishing, 2008.