Wendy Mulford (born 1941) is a Welsh-born

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 ...

, associated with the contemporary ''

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

'' scene, with the

British Poetry Revival "The British Poetry Revival" is the general name given to a loose poetry movement in Britain that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The revival was a modernist-inspired reaction to the Movement's more conservative approach to British poetry. T ...

, and with the development of

feminist poetry Feminist poetry is inspired by, promotes, or elaborates on feminist principles and ideas. It might be written with the conscious aim of expressing feminist principles, although sometimes it is identified as feminist by critics in a later era. Some w ...

in the 1970s. Her poetry has been viewed as "difficult to categorise" and as "multi- and non-linear". Her early poetry had particularly strong feminist and

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

elements, but latterly she has moved towards more personal themes. Mulford's prose works include a combined biography of

Sylvia Townsend Warner Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978) was an English novelist, poet and musicologist, known for works such as ''Lolly Willowes'', '' The Corner That Held Them'', and ''Kingdoms of Elfin''. Life Sylvia Townsend Warner wa ...

and

Valentine Ackland Valentine Ackland (born Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland; 20 May 1906 – 9 November 1969) was an English poet, and life partner of novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner. Their relationship was strained by Ackland’s infidelities and alcoholism, but s ...

, a book about female saints, and essays about poetry.

Writing and teaching

She wrote a biography of

and

(besides providing an introduction to a 1989 reprint of Townsend Warner's 1938 novel '' After The Death of Don Juan'') and co-wrote with

Sara Maitland Sara Maitland (born 27 February 1950) is a British writer of religious fantasy. A novelist, she is also known for her short stories. Her work has a magic realist tendency. Life and career Sarah (later "Sara") Louise Maitland was born in London ...

a book on the subject of female

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

s. Mulford also has used her experience teaching in Cambridge to write a number of critical essays about poetry, saying that women poets are still "too tied to the familiar".

Publishing

Mulford also has been active in the publishing business, founding Street Editions in 1972 and running the company until it was merged with

Ken Edwards Ken Edwards (born in Gibraltar, 1950) is a poet, editor, writer and musician who has lived in England since 1968. He is associated with The British Poetry Revival. Edwards was educated at King's College, London, and at Goldsmiths'. He has been in ...

' Reality Studios to form Reality Street Editions in 1993. During this period, Street Editions published such poets as John James,

Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's an ...

Tom Raworth Thomas Moore Raworth (19 July 1938 – 8 February 2017) was an English-Irish poet, publisher, editor, and teacher who published over 40 books of poetry and prose during his life. His work has been translated and published in many countries. Rawor ...

, John Wilkinson, Stephen Rodefer and Rod Mengham, and was at its peak regarded as a leading outlet for experimental literature that could not be published by mainstream presses. Mulford left the company in 1998, but her 2009 poetry collection ''The Land Between'' was published by the company.

Personal life

Mulford grew up in Wales but moved to

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in the 1960s to study English. She remained at Cambridge throughout the 1970s before moving to

Thames Polytechnic The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in the early 1980s and then returning to Cambridge. In the 1990s and 2000s she lived in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, which inspired her 1998 collection ''The East Anglia Sequence''. She married fellow poet John James in the 1970s and they have one daughter. More recently, her partner was the composer

Gordon Crosse Gordon Crosse (1 December 1937 – 21 November 2021) was an English composer. Biography Crosse was born in Bury, Lancashire on 1 December 1937, and in 1961 graduated from St Edmund Hall, Oxford with a first class honours degree in music, where h ...

, with whom she bought a cottage on

Papa Westray Papa Westray () ( sco, Papa Westree), also known as Papay, is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, United Kingdom. The fertile soilKeay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland''. London. HarperCollins. has long been a draw ...

, the northern-most of the Orkney Islands. Crosse made a choral setting of her poem ''song for a cold easter'' in 2021. Since 2007, Mulford has been training herself to be a

Jungian analyst Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

Works

Poetry

* ''In the Big Red Chair'' (1975) * ''Bravo to Girls & Heroes'' (1977) * ''No Fee'' (with

Denise Riley Denise Riley (born 1948, Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is ...

; 1979) * ''Reactions to Sunsets'' (1980) * ''The Light Sleepers'' (1980) * ''Some Poems 1968-1978'' (with Denise Riley; 1982) * ''The A. B. C. of Writing and Other Poems'' (1985) * ''Late Spring Next Year: Poems 1979-1985'' (1987) * ''The Bay of Naples'' (1992) * ''The East Anglia Sequence: Norfolk 1984 – Suffolk 1994'' (1998) * ''A Handful Of Morning: Poems 1993-1997'' (1999) * ''and suddenly, supposing: Selected Poems''The lowercase in the title is an affectation (2002) * ''The Land Between'' (2009)

Non-fiction

* ''This Narrow Place: Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland 1930-1951'' (1988) * ''Virtuous Magic: Women Saints and Their Meanings'' (with Sara Maitland; 1998)

As editor

* ''The Virago Book of Love Poetry'' (with Helen Kidd, Julia Mishkin and Sandi Russell; 1991)

As translator

* ''The Brontes' Hats'', by

(1991) * ''T'' by Sarah Kirsch (1995)

References

External links

Reality Street Editions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulford, Wendy 1941 births 20th-century Welsh poets 21st-century Welsh poets 20th-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh writers 21st-century British psychologists Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Cambridge Welsh women poets Living people Welsh biographers British women biographers 20th-century Welsh essayists British women essayists Jungian psychologists British feminist writers Welsh feminists British women psychologists Welsh women academics Welsh academics of English literature