Samuel Trevor Gardiner (1936–2016) was a Northern Irish poet, writer and architect.
Life and work
He was born in
Portadown, Armagh but lived most of his life in England, living in London through the 1970s and moving north to the
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
/ North Lincolnshire area in the 1980s where he lived out the rest of his life.
He first became well known in radical/literary circles as Trevor Gardiner, as part of
Norman Hidden's Writers Workshop circle, where he was sub editor of ''
New Poetry
''The New Poetry'' is a poetry anthology edited by Al Alvarez, published in 1962 and in a revised edition in 1966. It was greeted at the time as a significant review of the post-war scene in English poetry.
The introduction, written by Alvare ...
'' magazine and ghost-compiled Hidden's ''
Over to You'', a poetry anthology for students, for the
English Speaking Board English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. (ESB) is a UK-based organisation that delivers teaching and examinations in oral communication and the language arts. It works with schools, businesses, prisons, special needs groups and people for whom E ...
without formal credit, and whilst manager of the Poetry Bureau and later as editor of ''
Poet's Yearbook''.
Issues in his personal life saw him abandon his London life, and move initially to Cleethorpes. He worked as an architect through the 80s, writing creatively about historic architecture in this time. He came to national attention when he unexpectedly won the 1993
National Poetry Competition, which he had entered - almost as an afterthought - under the name Sam Gardiner, for his poem 'Protestant Windows'. The award was presented on January 17 by
Miroslav Holub
Miroslav Holub (; 13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist.
Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work ...
, and his poem read at the prize-giving event by Hull poet
Sean O'Brien, and subsequently published in
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
.
Following the win Sam Gardiner retired to write full time and published new work regularly across British, Irish and international poetry magazines.
He was Lincolnshire Millennium Laureate in 1999/2000, was repeatedly long listed for the
Forward Prize
The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...
, and won the Poetry Business pamphlet prize for his 'Picture Never Taken' in 2006. He became a key figure in local poetry circles around his adopted Grimsby, founding long running poetry groups in Louth and Lincoln in the 90s and Hull and Nunsthorpe in the 2000s.
After a long period 'under consideration' by Faber, Gardiner became frustrated and embarrassed by the prestigious publisher's failure to make a decision on his first collection, and withdrew his work in the hope he could publish a series of small press pamphlets. Instead he was picked up by Lagan Press who published a series of three long collections over the next 15 years ''Protestant Windows'' (2000), ''Night Ships'' (2006) and ''The Morning After'' (2011).
These collections found very strong markets in the UK, Ireland but particularly in the USA. Gardiner continued to publish prolifically in magazines, newspapers and journals. He died in 2016 of COPD.
Bibliography
Poetry collections
* 1999 ''Lincolnshire's Millennium Poet''
* 2000 ''Protestant Windows''
* 2004 ''The Picture Never taken''
* 2007 ''The Night Ships''
* 2008 ''Southumbrian Tidings''
* 2010 ''The Morning After''
Significant Anthology Appearances
* 1976 ''New poems 1976-77 : a P.E.N. anthology of contemporary poetry'' ed.
Howard Sergeant
Herbert (Howard) Sergeant MBE (1914–1987) was a poet and editor from Hull and the publisher of Britain's oldest independent poetry magazine ''Outposts''. He was appointed MBE in 1978 for services to literature.
He edited nearly 60 antholog ...
Hutchinson (London, England)
* 2004 ''The New Irish Poets'' ed.
Selina Guinness, Bloodaxe Books (Newcastle, England)
* 2006 ''Magnetic North: The Emerging Poets'' ed.
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
, Verbal Arts Centre (Derry, Ulster)
* 2007 ''Best of Irish Poetry 2007'' ed.
Maurice Riordan
Maurice Riordan (born 1953) is an Irish poet, translator, and editor.
Born in Lisgoold, County Cork, his poetry collections include: ''A Word from the Loki'' (1995), a largely London-based collection which was a Poetry Book Society Choice and ...
Colm Breathnach, South-word Editions (Munster, Ireland)
* 2008 ''The Forward book of poetry 2009'' ed.
Frieda Hughes
Frieda Rebecca Hughes (born 1 April 1960) is an English-Australian poet and painter. She has published seven children's books, four poetry collections and one short story and has had many exhibitions.
Family and personal life
Hughes is the daug ...
Faber (London, England)
* 2009 ''The Forward book of poetry 2010'' ed.
Josephine Hart
Josephine Hart, Baroness Saatchi (1 March 1942 – 2 June 2011 Faber (London, England)
* 2015 ''Something Happens, Sometimes Here: Contemporary Lincolnshire poetry'' ed.
Rory Waterman
Rory Waterman (born in Belfast, 1981) is a poet, critic, editor and academic resident in Nottingham, England.
Early life
Waterman grew up mainly in a lodge house to an estate near Nocton, Lincolnshire with his mother and grandmother, then in a ...
, Five Leaves (Nottingham, England)
* 2020 ''The SHOp : An Anthology of Poetry'' eds.
Hilary Wakeman and
Hilary Elfick
Works in Translation
*2009 ''De nooit gemaakte foto: vijf gedichten'' translator
Ko Kooman, Wagner & Van Santen (Sliedrecht, Holland)
Publications as editor (as S.T. Gardiner)
*1971-6 ''
Workshop New Poetry'' (poetry journal, ed.
Norman Hidden) as assistant editor
*1975 ''Poet's Year Book 1976''
*1976 ''Poet's Year Book 1977''
*1977 ''Poet's Year Book 1978''
*1977 ''Poetry Survey'' (Journal)
*1977 ''Autumn anthology : a biographical anthology of one hundred poets''
*1979 ''Poet's Year Book 1979''
Prose (as Trevor Gardiner)
*1988 ''Monasticism''
*1991 ''The Celtic church of Britain''
*1992-8 Reviews ''Seam'' poetry journal ed.
Robert Etty.
David Lightfoot
David Lightfoot (1959/1960 – 13 June 2021) was an Australian film producer.
Biography
Lightfoot worked on the horror films '' Wolf Creek'' and '' Rogue''. Other credits include ''Bad Boy Bubby'', '' Three Forever'', '' The Sound of One Hand ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Sam
20th-century poets from Northern Ireland
21st-century poets from Northern Ireland
People from Portadown
1936 births
2016 deaths