''New British Poetry'' is a

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

poetry anthology edited by Scots poet Don Paterson and American poet Charles Simic. In his preface, Simic wrote: "To make it as current as possible, Don Paterson and I decided to include only poets born after 1945 who have had at least two books published. Aside from that constraint, our plan was simply to read a lot of poetry and pick out poems we like."
Simic, Charles, Preface, ''New American Poetry'' from an excerpt on a Web page at

Graywolf Press Graywolf Press is an Independent publisher, independent, non-profit publishing, publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Graywolf Press collaborates with organizations such as the Co ...

Web site, accessed January 21, 2007 In a review of the book,

Zachariah Wells Zachariah Wells (born 10 September 1976)https://viaf.org/processed/LAC, 1013A1476 Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 2015-05-18. is a Canadian poet, critic, essayist and editor. Wells was born Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and was rais ...

writes that the editors "favour taste over tact, to exclude work from that school of opaque hermeticism known variously as 'experimental,' 'postmodern' or 'avant-garde' poetry. This is a conscious decision, made explicit by Paterson ..
Wells, Zach, untitled, undated article reviewing ''Backyard of Heaven: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Ireland and Newfoundland & Labrador'' and ''New British Poetry'', ''The Danforth Review'', accessed January 21, 2007 Paterson, in his "passionately opinionated" introduction, has a defense of mainstream poetry: :The work of the Postmoderns delegates the production of meaning to the reader, their poetry being largely derelict in its responsibility to aid it. The reader is alone. For those of us quickly bored by our own company, the result is work that can be objectively described as extremely boring.

Poets included

The volume includes work from 36 poets from England, Scotland, and Wales (not Northern Ireland): *

Gillian Allnutt Gillian Allnutt (born 15 January 1949 in London) is an English poet, author of 9 collections and recipient of several prizes including the 2016 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Life Allnutt was born in London, but was educated at La Sagesse Schoo ...

* Simon Armitage * John Ash *

Sujata Bhatt Sujata Bhatt (born 6 May 1956) is an Indian poet. Life and career Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and brought up in Pune until 1968, when she immigrated to United States with her family. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa, ...

John Burnside John Burnside FRSL FRSE (born 19 March 1955) is a Scottish writer. He is one of only three poets (the others being Ted Hughes and Sean O'Brien) to have won both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for the same book (''Black Cat ...

* Robert Crawford * Fred D'Aguiar *

Peter Didsbury Peter Didsbury (born 1946) is an English poet who was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire but lived most of his life in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. There, he has worked as an archaeologist and creative writing Creative writing is any writ ...

Michael Donaghy Michael Donaghy (May 24, 1954 – September 16, 2004) was a New York City poet and musician, who lived in London from 1985. Life and career Donaghy was born into an Irish family and grew up with his sister Patricia in the Bronx, New York, lo ...

* Carol Ann Duffy *

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 ...

Paul Farley Paul Farley, FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster. Life and work Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poetr ...

* James Fenton * Mark Ford * John Glenday *

Lavinia Greenlaw Lavinia Elaine Greenlaw (born 30 July 1962) is an English poet, novelist and non-fiction writer. She won the Prix du Premier Roman with her first novel and her poetry has been shortlisted for awards that include the T. S. Eliot Prize, Forward Pri ...

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 ...

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 ...

* Michael Hofmann * Kathleen Jamie * Alan Jenkins *

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 ...

* Gwyneth Lewis *

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 ...

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'' ...

Jamie McKendrick Jamie McKendrick (born 27 October 1955) is a British poet and translator. Early life and education McKendrick was born in Liverpool, 27 October 1955, and educated at the Quaker school, Bootham, York, and Liverpool College. He studied English Li ...

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio reco ...

* Sean O'Brien * Alice Oswald * Ruth Padel * Don Paterson *

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 ...

Christopher Reid Chris Reid (born 1971) is a Scottish football goalkeeper. Chris or Christopher Reid may also refer to: People *Christopher Reid (rapper) (born 1964), American actor, comedian, and former rapper *Christopher Reid (writer) (born 1949), Hong Kong-bor ...

Robin Robertson Robin Robertson (born in 1955) is a Scottish poet. Biography Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London. After working as an editor at Penguin Books and Secker and Warb ...

Anne Rouse Anne Barrett Rouse (born September 26, 1954) is an American-British poet. She has been cited as a noted American-British contributor to contemporary British poetry. Biography She was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Virginia and read histo ...

* Jo Shapcott

Other information

(paperback) 256 pages

Notes

External links

Graywolf Press Web page on the book ;Reviews

Review of the book by Zach Wells at ''The Danforth Review'' (Canadian) 2004 poetry books New British Poetry (2004) {{poetry-stub

Poets included

Other information

See also

Notes

External links