the Poetry kit

 

The Poetry Kit Interviews 1998


Marvin Bell Ted Burford Peter Howard David Kennedy John Kinsella Thomas Lynch Barry Spacks John Tranter

Interviews 1999


Marvin Bell

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Marvin Bell was born on August 3, 1937, in New York City. He grew up in Center Moriches on the south shore of eastern Long Island. Educated at Alfred University (B.A.), Syracuse University (graduate journalism, no degree), The University of Chicago (M.A.), and The University of Iowa (M.F.A.), he served in the U.S. Army, 1964-65. In 1965 he was appointed to the faculty of the Writers' Workshop at The University of Iowa, where he was eventually named Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters. When teaching, he lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Summers, he lives in Port Townsend, Washington, and he returns to eastern Long Island for the winter period between semesters. In addition, Marvin Bell has lived and worked in Rochester and Syracuse, Indianapolis, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz and San Francisco, Seattle, Vermont, Honolulu, Mexico, and Spain. He has traveled also in Canada, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ireland, Australia, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, England, Italy, and France. He is married to Dorothy. They have two sons, Nathan and Jason, and two grandchildren, Colman and Aileen.


Ted Burford

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Ted Burford was born in Hunslet, a suburb of Leeds (England), among slums, derelict mills, iron foundries, railway engine and minto makers, a brewery, old and shabby chapels. Later lived in London among motor cars and trees. He was a widely published poet and short-story writer, and editor of Limestone internet poetry magazine. A more detailed bibliography appears in The Poetry Kit Who's Who.
Ted Burford died on 14th June 2000.


Peter Howard

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Peter Howard was born in Nottingham, UK in 1957. He works as a Systems Design Consultant with Simoco Europe Ltd (formerly Philips Telecom - PMR) in Cambridge, designing radiocommunications systems. Formerly secretary and magazine editor of the Poetry Special Interest Group of British Mensa, he has run hands-on workshop courses on Internet Literature and Poetry sites for Bedfordshire County Libraries and was a Section Leader on the CompuServe on-line Poetry Forum, with responsibility for the World Wide Web Poetry and No Holds Barred Workshop sections. He writes a quarterly Internet column for Poetry Review and provides Internet consultancy for the Poetry Society, in connection with their Poetry on the Net project.
His poetry has been widely published in magazines, and his short collection: Low Probability of Racoons, was published by Envoi Poets Publications in 1994.
A fuller biographical note can be found on The Poetry Kit Who's Who pages.


David Kennedy

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David Kennedy was born 1959 in Leicester, UK, and now lives and works in Sheffield. He originally studied at the University of Warwick, and is now completing a Ph.d on community and nation in Dunn, Harrison and Heaney.
He co-edited The New Poetry (Bloodaxe 1993) with Michael Hulse and David Morley, and is the author of New Relations: The Refashioning of British Poetry 1980-1994 (Seren 1996)
(See also Who's Who in Poetry)


John Kinsella

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John Kinsella was born in Perth, Western Australia. After studying at the University of Western Australia, he travelled extensively through Europe and Asia. He has lived and worked in rural Western Australia, been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the W.A. Department for the Arts and the Literature Board of the Australia Council, and published in journals throughout the world. In 1996 he was awarded one of the inaugural Young Australian Creative Fellowships. He is the founding editor of the poetry Journal Salt and the small press Folio (Salt). He lives in Cambridge and divides his time between Britain and Australia. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and holds a 2 year Fellowship from the Australia Council. His home page can be found at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/1664/kinsella.html


Thomas Lynch

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Thomas Lynch was born in Detroit in 1948. He took over the funeral home in Milford, Michigan in 1974 where he's been ever since. In 1970 he went to Ireland for the first time, to find his family and read Yeats and Joyce. and now owns the small cottage in West Clare that was the home of his great great grandfather, and which was given as a wedding gift in the 19th century. He spends a portion of each year there.


Barry Spacks

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Barry Spacks is a librettist, singer-songwriter, actor, and life-long freelance editor. He taught writing and literature at M.I.T., 1960-1981, and is a persistently Visiting Professor at U.C. Santa Barbara, (named Distinguished Professor in Humanities & Fine Arts, 1991).
Over the years he has published two novels, many short stories, various essays, reviews, and journalism, plus seven poetry collections.

John Tranter:

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John Tranter is editor of "Jacket" electronic magazine. He came to prominence in the 1960's, and has remained one of Australia's leading poets. His latest collection, Late Night Radio, is a Poetry Book Society recommendation.