Barry Tebb is an

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 ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

in 1942.

Early career

Tebb studied English at the Leeds Training College 1961-1964 and while there ... "read widely, Proust, Firbank, Dickens, Ginsberg, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and of course, The New Poetry (Plath, Lowell and Berryman)" He and taught at Wyther Park Primary School 1964–67. At the University of Leeds he mixed with Gregory Fellows in Poetry including

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Peter Redgrove Peter William Redgrove (2 January 1932 – 16 June 2003) was a British poet, who also wrote prose, novels and plays with his second wife Penelope Shuttle. Life and career Redgrove was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He was educated at Tau ...

Jon Silkin Jon Silkin (2 December 1930 – 25 November 1997) was a British poet. Early life Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Litvak Jewish family, his parents were Joseph Silkin and Doris Rubenstein. His grandparents were all from the Lithuanian- part ...

and

David Wright David Allen Wright (born December 20, 1982) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the New York Mets. He was drafted by the Mets in 2001 MLB draft and made ...

. The Gregory fellowship awards were set up by Eric Craven Gregory to encourage young artists. His poetry was being printed in ''Peace News'' and ''The Poetry Review'' and he was first published by Alan Tarling's 'Poet and Printer Press' ( -1996) in the sixties'. His first collection was praised by John Carey in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' and his work was included in the Penguin anthology '' Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain''.

Later career

After a twenty-five year (1970-1995) hiatus he began to write again. Appalled by the state of poetry publishing he founded Sixties Press in 1993 which has published poetry and books by a number of authors including Daisy Abey and Brenda Williams. A review of Tebbs work in ''Poetry Magazines'' included the following, "Tebb's poetry plays on tensions implicit in the public and the private, the spoken and unspoken, the formal and the free. He is obviously an accomplished poet with a great deal to say." A collection of his work including manuscripts, typescript papers, books and pamphlets (1993-2003) is held in the Special Collections in the Leeds University Library. His parents were working class and he enjoyed growing up in Leeds, and the sense of community among the people, of everyone looking out for each other. Tebb was also a passionate campaigner with Brenda Williams for better mental health services. He published several books on the subject. He also has a Mental Health Blog where he pursues the needs of patient and carers of which he had personal experience.

Private life

Tebb met Brenda Williams through a mutual friend and they married in 1967. They had a son Isaiah and subsequently divorced in 1975. They remained close and when they returned to Leeds lived next to each other. Williams began writing poetry in the '70s and Tebb published her work in his own Sixties Press. Williams moved to Oxford then London and Tebb moved close to where she resided each time. She had severe depression throughout her life and protested and campaigned for better mental health care and Tebb supported her efforts and was, when needed, her carer. She was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

and died in July 2015. While living near Williams in London, Tebb met his partner, poet and fiction writer Daisy Abey. Isaiah, the child of Tebb and Williams, studied at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

then Baliol College Oxford but was hospitalised and remains so with chronic

paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...

In 2004 he published a poem ''Coming to terms with schizophrenia'' (in ''Tranquility Street : new and selected poems)'' with the opening line : Why our son, why?

Bibliography

Poetry

1966 ''Five quiet shouters : an anthology of assertive verse :

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

, Wendy Oliver, John Cotton and Michael Holmes.'' (editor) 1966 ''The quarrel with ourselves'' 1968 ''Three regional voices : Iain Crichton Smith, Barry Tebb and

Michael Longley Michael Longley, (born 27 July 1939, Belfast, Northern Ireland), is an Anglo-Irish poet. Life and career One of twin boys, Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to English parents, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast A ...

'' 1969 '' Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain (One of 63 poets included)'' 1970 ''Cross-currents'' 1997 ''Summer with Margaret'' 2000 ''In memory of my mother and other poems'' 2000 ''Bridge over the Aire : the autobiography of a poet'' (co author with Daisy Abey) 2001 ''The road to Haworth Moor'' 2001 ''The lights of Leeds'' 2001 ''Windsong'' 2001 ''Winterlight'' 2002 ''Closing nostalgia road : selected poems 1962 - 2002'' 2003 ''Collected Poems'' 2003 ''Kissing cobblestones in Keighley'' 2004 ''Selected Poems 1964 - 2004'' 2004 ''Tranquility Street : new and selected poems'' 2005 ''Sixties Press anthology of Gregory Fellows' Poetry'' (co author with Debjani Chatterjee) 2006 ''The real survivors anthology : poetry for life (Easy guide for patients and carers (EGPAC)) (editor)'' 2007 ''The nostalgic bus : new collected poems'' 2008 ''Strangers on the shore'' 2009 ''New poems 2007 - 2009'' 2015 ''Cut Flowers – Selected Poems 1964-2015'' 2016 ''Barry Tebb Collected Poems 1964-2016''

Novels/Mental Health Issues

2003 ''Kith and kin : experiences in mental health caring'' 2004 ''The great freedom : a novella about the 'Leeds poetic renaissance' of the sixties'' 2005 ''Life and death in Camden'' 2005 ''Censored in Camden :the closure of Jamestown Day Centre'' 2005 ''Pitfall Street'' 2005 ''The fiddler and his bow :the autobiography of a poet'' 2006 ''Beyond stigma : experiences of mental health survivors'' ''(Easy guide for patients and carers (EGPAC))'' 2006 ''Acid drops : selected reviews'' 2008 ''No children should have to live the way I lived : Sutton young carers handbook'' 2013 ''The overdose (EGPAC)'' 2014 Young carers handbook (editor) (Kindle edition of 2008 title)