Paul Farley
Encyclopedia
Paul Farley is an award-winning English poet. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London
, Brighton
and Cumbria
. He currently lives in north Lancashire
and is Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University
.
(Best First Collection) in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. The book also gained him the Somerset Maugham Award
, and the poem Keith Chegwin as Fleance gained him the Geoffrey Dearmer award
.
In 1999 he won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
. From 2000-2002 He was poet-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust
in Grasmere.
His second collection is The Ice Age (2002), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award. Writing in Scotland on Sunday, W.N. Herbert described Farley as ‘one of our most engaged and engaging poets. He has the knack of both establishing and undermining the securities of memory purely through turn of phrase.’
In 2004, Paul Farley was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets. His latest collection, Tramp in Flames, was published in 2006, a poem from which, ‘Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second’, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem. The same year he also published a study of Terence Davies’s film Distant Voices, Still Lives. He has also written a great deal for radio, including several dramas, and often writes more widely on art and literature.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
. He currently lives in north Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and is Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...
.
Life
His first collection of poetry, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (1998) won a Forward Poetry PrizeForward Poetry Prize
The Forward Poetry Prizes were created in 1991. The aim of the prizes is to extend the audience for contemporary poetry. Until the T.S. Eliot Prize remuneration was increased to £15,000 plus £1000 to each of nine runners-up, the Forward was the United Kingdom's most valuable annual poetry...
(Best First Collection) in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. The book also gained him the Somerset Maugham Award
Somerset Maugham Award
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
, and the poem Keith Chegwin as Fleance gained him the Geoffrey Dearmer award
Geoffrey Dearmer award
The Geoffrey Dearmer Award is an annual poetry prize was established in 1997 by the estate of Geoffrey Dearmer to award an annual prize to the Poetry Review "new poet of the year" who has not yet published a book....
.
In 1999 he won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award is a literary prize awarded to a British author under the age of 35 for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry...
. From 2000-2002 He was poet-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust
Wordsworth Trust
The Wordsworth Trust is a living memorial set up to celebrate the works of the poet William Wordsworth and his contemporaries. Wordsworth, conscious of the need for poetry to renew itself within a tradition speaks of writing for 'youthful poets' who 'will be my second self when I am gone.'An...
in Grasmere.
His second collection is The Ice Age (2002), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award. Writing in Scotland on Sunday, W.N. Herbert described Farley as ‘one of our most engaged and engaging poets. He has the knack of both establishing and undermining the securities of memory purely through turn of phrase.’
In 2004, Paul Farley was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets. His latest collection, Tramp in Flames, was published in 2006, a poem from which, ‘Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second’, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem. The same year he also published a study of Terence Davies’s film Distant Voices, Still Lives. He has also written a great deal for radio, including several dramas, and often writes more widely on art and literature.