Ian Parks (born 1959) is a British poet, known for his
love poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...
.
[http://www.nightpublishing.com/id24.html, Night Publishing, Ian Parks, Retrieved February 4, 2011.]
Biography
Described by Chiron Review as 'the finest love poet of his generation',
[ Parks was born in Mexborough, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a miner, Parks grew up during the declining years of the industry - something which was to have a profound effect on his later work. His first collection of poems, ''Gargoyles in Winter'' was published in 1986, the same year in which he received a Yorkshire Arts Award.
From 1986 to 1988 he was writer-in-residence at North Riding College, Scarborough. He was made a Hawthornden Fellow in 1991 and was awarded a Travelling Fellowship to the US in 1994, spending most of his year in New England. He did research into Chartist poetry in Oxford and was one of the Poetry Society New Poets in 1996.
He is the editor of ''Versions of the North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry''.
He has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Oxford, Hull, and Leeds and was Writing Fellow at De Montfort University Leicester from 2012 to 2014.
He was writer in residence at Gladstone's Library in 2012 and currently runs the Read to Write Project in Doncaster.
His collections include ''A Climb Through Altered Landscapes'' (Blackwater, 1998), ''Shell Island'' (Waywiser, 2006), ''The Cage'' (Flux Gallery Press, 2008), ''Love Poems 1979-2009'' (Flux Gallery Press, 2009) ''The Landing Stage'' (Lapwing, Belfast, 2010),]The Liberal
''The Liberal'' was a London-based magazine "dedicated to promoting liberalism around the world", which ran in print from 2004 to 2009 and online until 2012. The publication explored liberal attitudes to a range of cultural issues, and encouraged ...
'', ''Poetry Salzburg Review
''Poetry Salzburg Review'' is an English language, biannual literary magazine published by Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg and edited by Wolfgang Görtschacher. It is a successor to '' The Poet's Voice'', which was edited and publis ...
'', '' The Independent on Sunday'', ''Poetry (Chicago)'', '' London Magazine'', ''The Chiron Review'', ''The Rialto
The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the ''sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent markets as well as for the monumental Rialto ...
'', '' Stand'', '' Acumen'', ''Poetry Greece'', ''Modern Poetry in Translation'' ''and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
. His pamphlet, ''A Paston Letter'' was published by Rack Press.
A selection of his poems appears in ''Old City: New Rumours'' edited by Carol Rumens
Carol Rumens FRSL (born 10 December 1944) is a British poet.
Life
Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to grammar school and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before completing her d ...
and Ian Gregson.
His versions of the modern Greek poet Constantine Cavafy - ''The Cavafy Variations'' (Rack Press) was published in 2013 and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. ''If Possible: Cavafy Poems'' was published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award; ''Body, Remember: Cavafy Poems'' also from Calder Valley, was published in 2019.
His ''Selected Poems of Harold Massingham'' was published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2021.
His own ''Selected Poems 1983-2023'' is published by Calder Valley Poetry. His work is included in the Folio Society ''Love Poems'' edited by Imtiaz Dharker.
'I never started out to be a love poet' Parks states in the preface to his ''Love Poems 1979-2009''[Love Poems 1979, (2009, Flux Gallery Press)] - 'there's never been a point where I've set myself an agenda or a strategy. The love poems have just happened, appearing out of the blue and prompted by circumstances. They called and I responded'.
References
External links
Interview with Parks by Gladstone's Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Ian
1959 births
Living people
English male poets
People from Mexborough