John Lawton Wilkinson (born 1953) is a contemporary

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. From 1972 to 1975, he studied English at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, United Kingdom, where he founded, with Charlie Bulbeck and Charles Lambert, the Blue Room, a society devoted to the propagation of poetry and the other fine arts. His first publication, ''Of Western Limit'' (a collaboration with Charles Lambert), appeared in 1974, the year in which Wilkinson won the Chancellor's Medal for Poetry. He has published seven major collections of verse as well as critical articles on British and American poetry, some of which were collected in ''The Lyric Touch'' (2007). His most recent collections are ''Reckitt's Blue'' (2013), ''Down to Earth'' (2008), ''Lake Shore Drive'' (2006), ''Contrivances'' (2003) and ''Effigies against the Light'' (2001); a chapbook titled ''Iphigenia'' appeared in 2004, and his 1986 collection, ''Proud Flesh'', was re-issued in 2005 with an introduction by

Drew Milne Drew Milne is a contemporary British poet and academic. Published works Milne’s books of poetry include ''Sheet Mettle'' (Alfred David Editions, 1994), ''Bench Marks'' (Alfred David Editions, 1998), ''The Damage: new and selected poems'' (Salt ...

. In 1992, his work "Hid Lip" appeared alongside works by

Stephen Rodefer Stephen Rodefer (November 20, 1940 – August 22, 2015) was an American poet and painter who lived in Paris and London. Born in Bellaire, Ohio, he knew many of the early beat and Black Mountain poets, including Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Ch ...

and Rod Mengham in a volume called ''Writing Out of Character'', published by Street Editions. ''Schedule of Unrest: Selected Poems'' appeared in 2014. John Wilkinson has held a Frank Knox Fellowship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and was a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

Distinguished Scholar in 2003/04 at the Nathan S. Kline Institute. From 2007/08 he was Carl H. Pforzheimer Fellow at the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

in North Carolina. From 2005 to 2010 he was Writer in Residence and thereafter Research Professor in the Department of English at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. In 2010 he moved to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

as Professor of Practice of the Arts. He is married to the literary critic Maud Ellmann.

References

1953 births Living people Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Harvard Fellows University of Chicago faculty Chapbook writers English male poets {{England-poet-stub