Neil Astley, Hon.

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(born 12 May 1953) is an English publisher, editor and writer. He is best known as the founder of the poetry publishing house

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

Life and work

Astley was born in

Portchester Portchester is a locality and suburb northwest of Portsmouth, England. It is part of the borough of Fareham in Hampshire. Once a small village, Portchester is now a busy part of the expanding conurbation between Portsmouth and Southampton o ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, and grew up in nearby

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

. He was educated at Price's School, Fareham (1964–71), the Alliance Française, Paris (1972), and

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

(1975–78 and 1979–81).''Who's Who 2010'' (A & C Black, 2009). From 1972 to 1975 he worked in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, London, Paris and Australia, as a journalist, in publishing (

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

), and as a press officer for

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

’ magazine division and for Lyons Maid ice cream.National Life Story Collection at the British Library Sound Archive (Book Trade Lives transcript) In his essay "The Story of Bloodaxe","The Story of Bloodaxe: 1978–2008", ''In Person: 30 Poets'', filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce, edited by Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), pp. 237–62. he recounts two early life-changing experiences, the first in France in 1972 when he "spent six months in post-'68 Paris... and was radicalised". The second was in Darwin, Australia, where he was working as a sub-editor on the '' Northern Territory News'': "On Christmas Day, 1974, Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. I was trapped under a collapsed house. This brush with death was enough to send me post haste to Newcastle, where I was soon working as a bus conductor while waiting to start my course." In Newcastle upon Tyne, while studying for his degree at the university, he worked as production editor on Jon Silkin's ''Stand'' magazine for three years, helped organise poetry readings at

Morden Tower The Morden Tower in Back Stowell Street on the Newcastle town wall, West Walls of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building. Since June 1964, Connie Pickard has been custodian of Morden Tower, and ...

, and became involved with small press editing and publishing. Astley is a patron of the

Ledbury Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills. It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Street ...

Poetry Festival, having previously served on its board as a trustee. He has also been a development committee member of Cúirt International Literature Festival in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

, Ireland, an organiser of Newcastle Literary Festival, and a director for three years of the Poetry Book Society, responsible for adding poetry in translation to the society's remit. He guest-edited the Spring 2015 issue of the US literary journal ''Ploughshares'', the first all-poetry issue in its 44-year history. He has been a contributor to numerous radio and television programmes in Britain and Ireland, including the '' Today Programme'', '' Front Row'', '' Midweek'' and '' Start the Week'' on BBC Radio 4, ''The Verb'' on BBC Radio 3, '' University Challenge'' on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

, GMTV's '' The Sunday Programme'', and ''The Arts Show'' and ''Poetry Now'' on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

. In 2018 he was made an honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

Bloodaxe

After graduating in 1978 with a first in English, Astley founded his poetry publishing house

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. He ran it alone from home while doing postgraduate research and other jobs, until it could pay him a wage seven years later. In 1982, he secured Bloodaxe's first annual funding from Northern Arts, later superseded by more substantial annual grant support from Arts Council England. In 1984 he moved the press into its first office, in the Exchange Buildings on Newcastle's Quayside. Bloodaxe is currently based in Hexham, Northumberland. As Bloodaxe's sole editor and managing director, Astley has published over a thousand books by over 400 writers, and edits, produces and typesets all the press's annual output of around 30 new titles a year. Bloodaxe won the Northern Electric Arts Award in 1989 and the ''Sunday Times'' Small Publisher of the Year Award in 1990. In 1995 Astley was given an honorary

DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

, where he has been a visiting fellow at its School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics since 2000. This has involved publishing the series of annual Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures given at the university. Astley's stated aim has been to achieve editorial breadth and balance by publishing what he believes to be the best of many different kinds of poetry: "The only positive discrimination I have exercised has been in favour of literary quality", which has involved commissioning several anthologies designed to redress imbalances in the availability of writing by women or minorities, including Jeni Couzyn's ''Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Women Poets'' (1985), E. A. Markham's ''Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain'' (1989),

Deryn Rees-Jones Deryn Rees-Jones is an Anglo-Welsh Welsh writing in English ( Welsh: ''Llenyddiaeth Gymreig yn Saesneg''), (previously Anglo-Welsh literature) is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. The term ‘An ...

's ''Modern Women Poets'' (2005), published as the companion anthology to a critical study, ''Consorting with Angels'' (2005),

Jeet Thayil Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including ''These Errors Are Correct'' (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, '' Narcopolis,'' ( ...

's ''Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets'' (2008), ''Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets'' (ed.

Jackie Kay Jacqueline Margaret Kay, (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her works ''Other Lovers'' (1993), ''Trumpet'' (1998) and ''Red Dust Road'' (2011). Kay has won many awards, including the Guardian Fictio ...

, James Procter and Gemma Robinson, 2012), and three anthologies of emerging black and minority ethnic poets mentored through the Complete Works project established by Spread the Word, ''Ten: new poets'' (ed. Bernardine Evaristo and

Daljit Nagra Daljit Nagra (born 1966) is a British poet whose debut collection, ''Look We Have Coming to Dover!'' – a title alluding to W. H. Auden's ''Look, Stranger!'', D. H. Lawrence's ''Look! We Have Come Through!'' and by epigraph also to Matthew Arn ...

, 2010), ''Ten: the new wave'' (ed. Karen McCarthy Woolf, 2014) and 'Ten: poets of the new generation'' (ed. Karen McCarthy Woolf, 2017). Astley discovered many of the notable poets to emerge in British poetry over the past three decades: "Astley was the first to publish some of the major players", Daisy Goodwin reported in a 1993 ''Guardian'' profile. These included

Simon Armitage Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...

, David Constantine, Maura Dooley,

Ian Duhig Robert Ian Duhig (born 9 February 1954 London) is a British poet. In 2014, he was a chair of the final judging panel for the T. S. Eliot Prize awards. Life He was the eighth of eleven children born to Irish parents. He graduated from Leeds Un ...

Helen Dunmore Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer. Her best known works include the novels ''Zennor in Darkness'', '' A Spell of Winter'' and ''The Siege'', and her last ...

Jen Hadfield Jen Hadfield (born 1978) is a British poet and visual artist. She has published four poetry collections. Her first collection, ''Almanacs'', won an Eric Gregory Award in 2003. Hadfield is the youngest female poet to be awarded the TS Eliot Pri ...

, Gwyneth Lewis,

Glyn Maxwell Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist, and lecturer. Early life Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'' ...

, Sean O'Brien,

Jo Shapcott Jo Shapcott FRSL (born 24 March 1953, London) is an English poet, editor and lecturer who has won the National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Costa Book of the Year Award, a Forward Poetry Prize and the Cholmondeley Awa ...

and Pauline Stainer, many of whom are still published by his firm. Bloodaxe has attracted poets from other commercial poetry lists, including Philip Gross and Susan Wicks from Faber,

Selima Hill Selima Hill (born 13 October 1945) is a British poet. She has published twenty poetry collections since 1984. Her 1997 collection, ''Violet'', was shortlisted for the most important British poetry awards: the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry ...

and

Peter Reading Peter Reading (27 July 1946 – 17 November 2011) was an English poet and the author of 26 collections of poetry. He is known for his deep interest for the nature and use of classical metres. ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry'' de ...

from Chatto,

R. S. Thomas Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest ( Church of Wales) noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introduc ...

from Macmillan, Ken Smith from Cape,

Adrian Mitchell Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's Cam ...

from Allison & Busby,

Brendan Kennelly Timothy Brendan Kennelly (17 April 1936 – 17 October 2021), usually known as Brendan Kennelly, was an Irish poet and novelist. He was Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College Dublin until 2005. Following his retirement he was a Pr ...

from a variety of Irish presses, and eight poets from the distinguished poetry list discontinued by Oxford University Press in 1999:

Fleur Adcock Fleur Adcock (born 10 February 1934) is a New Zealand poet and editor, of English and Northern Irish ancestry, who has lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doc ...

, Moniza Alvi, Basil Bunting,

Roy Fisher Roy Fisher (11 June 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English poet and jazz pianist. His poetry shows an openness to both European and American modernist influences, while remaining grounded in the experience of living in the English Midlands. ...

Carole Satyamurti Carole Satyamurti (13 August 1939 – 13 August 2019) was a British poet, sociologist, and translator. Personal life Satyamurti grew up in Kent, and lived in North America, Singapore and Uganda. She lived in London until her death on 13 August ...

Penelope Shuttle Penelope Shuttle (born 12 May 1947) is a British poet. Life Born in Staines, Middlesex, Shuttle left school at 17. She wrote her first novel at the age of 20. She has lived in Falmouth, Cornwall since 1970. She married the poet Peter Redgrove (1 ...

Anne Stevenson Anne Stevenson (January 3, 1933 – September 14, 2020) was an American-British poet and writer and recipient of a Lannan Literary Award. Life Stevenson was the first daughter of Louise Destler Stevenson and philosopher Charles Stevenson and w ...

and George Szirtes. Philip Gross and George Szirtes went on to win the

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

with Bloodaxe collections, as did

from Shetland, with her second collection. He has also sought to redress the neglect of marginalised poets, publishing important collected editions of writers such as Martin Bell (1988), James Wright (1992), Basil Bunting (2000),

Barry MacSweeney Barry MacSweeney (17 July 1948 – 9 May 2000) was an English poets, English poet and journalist. His organizing work contributed to the British Poetry Revival. Life and work 1960s Barry MacSweeney was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He left school ...

(2003), Martin Carter (2006), Arun Kolatkar (2010), A. S. J. Tessimond (2010), Bernard Spencer (2011) and Richard Murphy (2013), as well as a seminal readers' edition of Edward Thomas: ''The Annotated Collected Poems'' (2008) edited by

Edna Longley Edna Longley (born 1940) is an Irish literary critic and cultural commentator specialising in modern Irish and British poetry. Early life and education Born in Cork in 1940, the daughter of mathematics professor T.S. Broderick and a Scottish P ...

. In 2014, his ten-year search to find and republish the poet

Rosemary Tonks Rosemary Tonks (17 October 1928 – 15 April 2014) was an English poet and author. After publishing two poetry collections, six novels, and pieces in numerous media outlets, she disappeared from the public eye after her conversion to Fundamentali ...

, who famously "disappeared" in 1979 after severing all contact with the literary world, bore fruit with her posthumously published ''Bedouin of the London Evening: Collected Poems & Selected Prose''. In 1985 Astley encountered translations in an American magazine of poems by

Irina Ratushinskaya Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya (russian: Ири́на Бори́совна Ратуши́нская, 4 March 1954, Odessa – 5 July 2017, Moscow) was a Russian Soviet dissident, poet and writer. Biography Irina Ratushinskaya was born in Odess ...

, a young Russian poet then imprisoned in a Soviet prison camp for the "crime" of writing and distributing poems a judge had called "a danger to the state". At the age of 28, she had been sentenced to seven years' hard labour. He commissioned a translator, David McDuff, to produce a book of her poetry in English, which he combined with documentary material on the poet's imprisonment obtained from

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. It included extracts from a camp diary charting life in the "Small Zone", a special unit for women prisoners of conscience in Mordovia, where the poet was held. The resulting book, ''No, I'm Not Afraid'', was published in May 1986. An international campaign was mounted on her behalf, spearheaded by her own poetry, which led to her release in October 1986 on the eve of the

Reykjavík Summit The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 11–12 October 1986. The talks collapsed at the l ...

, after

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

and

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

had been given copies of her book by

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 t ...

. Astley also published

Tony Harrison Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse w ...

's ''v.'' (1985), a book-length poem set in a vandalised cemetery in Leeds during the Miners’ Strike. Two years after its publication, Richard Eyre’s film of the work on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

sparked a national furore, not over Harrison's left-wing politics, but over his skinhead protagonist's use of "bad language". Astley's response was to assemble a new edition of ''v.'' (1989) including the poem with documentation of the newspaper and other media coverage which became a set text on cultural studies courses. Astley has commissioned books representing or addressing the poetry of particular generations or periods in British and Irish poetry, including the anthologies ''A Rumoured City'' (introduced by Philip Larkin, edited by Douglas Dunn, 1982), ''The New Poetry'' (edited by

Michael Hulse Michael Hulse (born 1955) is an English poet, translator and critic, notable especially for his translations of German novels by W. G. Sebald, Herta Müller, and Elfriede Jelinek. Life and works Hulse was educated locally in Stoke-on-Trent unt ...

, David Kennedy and David Morley, 1993)'', The Bloodaxe Book of 20th Century Poetry from Britain and Ireland'' (edited by

, 2000), ''The New Irish Poets'' (edited by Selina Guinness, 2004), ''Voice Recognition'' (edited by James Byrne and Clare Pollard, 2009), ''Identity Parade: New Poets from Britain and Ireland'' (edited by

Roddy Lumsden Roderick Chalmers "Roddy" Lumsden (28 May 1966 – 10 January 2020) was a Scottish poet. He was born in St Andrews and educated at Madras College. He published seven collections of poetry, a number of chapbooks and a collection of trivia, as well ...

, 2010) and ''Dear World & Everyone In It: new poetry in the UK'' (edited by Nathan Hamilton, 2013). In addition there have been books of essays, such as Sean O'Brien's ''The Deregulated Muse'' (1998), ''Strong Words'' (edited by

W.N. Herbert W. N. Herbert , also known as Bill Herbert (born 1961) is a poet from Dundee, Scotland. He writes in both English and Scots. He and Richard Price founded the poetry magazine '' Gairfish''. He currently teaches at Newcastle University. Early ...

and

Matthew Hollis Matthew Hollis (born 1971) is an English people, English author, editor, professor, and poet, currently living in London, England. Career and background He was born in Norwich, the son of Patricia Hollis, Baroness Hollis of Heigham, politician ...

, 2000) and

's ''Modern Women Poets'' (2005).

Reception

As editor at Bloodaxe for over 30 years Astley has been credited with "revolutionising" and democratising poetry publishing in Britain. Praised for his "omnivorous inclusiveness", he has given readers "as wide a range as possible of contemporary poetry by all kinds of writers", in so doing bringing more readers to contemporary poetry. This involved overturning an earlier bias favouring Oxbridge-educated male writers from south-east England, and publishing leading poets from America, the Caribbean and Europe (including many collections and anthologies of translated poetry from France, Russia, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia in particular), alongside books by new and established poets from all parts of Britain and Ireland, the latter ranging from modernists Basil Bunting and

J.H. Prynne Jeremy Halvard Prynne (born 24 June 1936) is a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival. Prynne grew up in Kent and was educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He is a Life Fellow of Gonvil ...

to performance poets

John Agard John Agard FRSL (born 21 June 1949 in British Guiana) is an Afro-Guyanese playwright, poet and children's writer, now living in Britain. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

and Benjamin Zephaniah. He has sought to open up publishing opportunities for women poets, "not because they are women poets but because they are outstanding writers by any standard. For many years Bloodaxe has been unusual in having a poetry list which is 50:50 male: female", and being "responsive to the changing literatures of Britain and of other countries", so that in 2010 it was possible for a leading Black British writer, Bernardine Evaristo, to observe that "a single imprint, Bloodaxe Books, publishes nearly all the poets not with specialist black and Asian imprints, while several other prominent UK poetry publishers do not publish any black or Asian poets from Britain". Astley has been called "the UK's leading anthologist", best known for ''Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times'' (2002), Britain's biggest selling anthology of contemporary poetry since publication, one of several books he has published aimed at broadening the readership of contemporary poetry and re-igniting the interest of readers who haven't read much poetry since school. A US edition was published in 2003 by Miramax, launched by Astley in New York as a book "for people who know they love poetry and for people who think they don't" at a reading shared with Meryl Streep, Liev Schrieber,

Maria Tucci Maria Tucci (born June 19, 1941) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1967 for her performance in ''The Rose Tattoo''. She played Koula in the 2015 mini-series '' The Slap''. She als ...

Nina Cassian Nina Cassian (pen name of Renée Annie Cassian-Mătăsaru; 27 November 1924, in Galați – 14 April 2014, in New York City) was a Romanian poet, children's book writer, translator, journalist, accomplished pianist and composer, and film critic. ...

, Philip Levine,

, Paul Muldoon, Sharon Olds, Alice Quinn and Charles Simic.''Staying Alive'' was a controversial book, popular with readers and booksellers. He has since published the second and third anthologies in his ''Staying Alive'' trilogy, ''Being Alive'' (2004) and ''Being Human'' (2011), which were followed by ''Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy'' (2012). In 2008 he published ''In Person: 30 Poets'', filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce, claimed to be "the world's first DVD-anthology", consisting of films on two DVDs of six hours of readings by 30 poets with all the texts included in the accompanying anthology. This was followed in 2017 by ''In Person: World Poets'', a larger compilation featuring 14 hours of readings and features on DVD covering 59 poets from around the world, again with all the texts included in the book.

Writing

In 1982 Astley received an

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

from the Society of Authors for a short collection of his own poems'', The Speechless Act'', later published by the Mandeville Press in 1984. His first book-length collection, ''Darwin Survivor'' (Peterloo Poets, 1988), was given a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. A second book of poems,'' Biting My Tongue'', followed in 1995. He has also published two novels, ''The End of My Tether'' (2002/2003), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and ''The Sheep Who Changed the World'' (2005).

Bibliography

As editor (selected list)

* ''Ten North-East Poets'' (

, 1980) * ''Poetry with an Edge'' (

, 1988, 1993) * ''Tony Harrison: a critical anthology'' (

, 1991) * ''New Blood'' (

, 1999) * ''Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times'' (

, UK 2002,

Miramax Books Miramax Books was an American publishing company started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films to publish movie tie-ins. Between 2000 and 2005, while Jonathan Burnham was its president and editor-in-chief, the imprint published the memoirs ...

, USA 2003) * ''Pleased to See Me: 69 Very Sexy Poems'' (

, 2003) * ''Do Not Go Gentle: poems for funerals'' (

, 2003) * ''Being Alive: the sequel to 'Staying Alive (

, 2004) * ''Passionfood: 100 love poems'' (

, 2005, 2014) * ''Bloodaxe Poetry Introductions I: Alexander, Alvi, Dharker, Kay'' (

, 2006) * ''Bloodaxe Poetry Introductions 2: Enzensberger, Holub, Sorescu, Tranströmer'' (

, 2006) * ''Bloodaxe Poetry Introductions 3: Gilbert, Hirshfield, Kinnell, Merwin'' (

, 2007) * ''Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds'', with Pamela Robertson-Pearce (

, 2007) * ''Earth Shattering: ecopoems'' (

, 2007) * ''In Person: 30 Poets'', with DVDs of films by Pamela Robertson-Pearce (

, 2008) * ''Being Human: the companion anthology to 'Staying Alive' and 'Being Alive (

, 2011) * ''Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy'' (

, 2012) * ''The World Record: international voices from Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus'', with Anna Selby (

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

, 2012) * ''The Hundred Years' War: modern war poems'' (

, 2014) *
Ploughshares
' vol. 41 no.1 (Spring 2015) * ''Funny Ha-Ha, Funny Peculiar: a book of strange & comic poems'' (

, 2015) * ''In Person: World Poets'', with DVDs of films by Pamela Robertson-Pearce (

, 2017) * ''Land of Three Rivers: the poetry of North-East England'' (

, 2017) * ''Staying Human: new poems for Staying Alive'' (

, 2020)

Novels

* ''The End of My Tether'' (Flambard Press, 2002;

Scribner Scribner may refer to: Media * Charles Scribner's Sons, also known as Scribner or Scribner's, New York City publisher * ''Scribner's Magazine'', pictorial published from 1887–1939 by Charles Scribner's Sons, then merged with the ''Commentator ...

, 2003) * ''The Sheep Who Changed the World'' (Flambard Press, 2005)

Poetry collections

* ''The Speechless Act'' (The Mandeville Press, 1984), Eric Gregory Award * ''Darwin Survivor'' (Peterloo Poets, 1988), Poetry Book Society Recommendation * ''Biting My Tongue'' (

, 1995)

References

External links

Book Trade Lives: British Library oral history interview

Interview with Neil Astley. ''The Wolf''
number 5, December 2003

* ttp://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/resources/view/free-verse-report Discussion for Spread the Word between Neil Astley and Bernardine Evaristo (2006)
Article by Neil Astley in the ''New Statesman''
"Give poetry back to people" 23 October 2006
Article by Neil Astley on his ''Being Human'' anthology
Poetry Book Society online blog, March 2011
Christina Patterson: ''About Neil Astley''
''Ploughshares'', 126 (Spring 2015)
Extended introduction by Neil Astley to ''Ploughshares'' transatlantic poetry issue
''Ploughshares'' blog (22 April 2015) {{DEFAULTSORT:Astley, Neil Living people 1953 births British book publishers (people) English emigrants to Australia Alumni of Newcastle University Academics of Newcastle University People from Portchester People from Darwin, Northern Territory Poetry publishers English poetry Poetry anthologies