Tom Leonard (poet)
Encyclopedia
Tom Leonard is a Scottish poet, best known for his poems written in Glaswegian dialect
.
Tom Leonard has been part of the Scottish literary renaissance for the past forty years. With Alasdair Gray
and James Kelman
, he has been appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Glasgow University.
Published in 1976, his Glasgow Poems kick-started a literary counterculture.
In 1984 he released Intimate Voices, a selection of his work from 1965 onwards including poems and essays on William Carlos Williams
and “the nature of hierarchical diction in Britain.” It shared the award for Scottish Book of the Year and yet was banned from Central Region
school libraries. Peter Manson
, in the Poetry Review, claimed the poems, “speak so precisely and with such a fierce, analytical wit that they transcend their status as poems and become part of the shared apparatus we use to think with. I don't know any other contemporary poetry of which that is so true.”
His poem "The Six O'Clock News" from Unrelated Incidents
is compulsory study for an AQA English Language GCSE qualification in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
.
Whilst working as Writer in Residence at Renfrew District Libraries in 1990 Leonard compiled Radical Renfrew: Poetry from the French Revolution to the First World War, an anthology resurrecting the work of long forgotten poets from the West of Scotland and disproving the “traditional”, fictitious belief that Scotland at that time was a cultural wasteland. T. S. Eliot
once claimed, to the effect, that Scotland has no literary culture. Radical Renfrew shows that this is incorrect and also suggests that in denying the existence of a native Scottish culture, the Scottish people have been denied “the right to equality of dialogue with those in possession of Queen's English or "good" Scots.”
Three years later he released Places of the Mind, the only 20th century biographical novel
of the Scottish writer James Thomson
. Best known for his epic poem The City Of Dreadful Night, Thomson’s life and works are captured by Leonard in a study of poetry, alcoholism and freethinking.
His most overtly political work followed in 1995. Reports From The Present compiles work from 1982 to 1994 including political satires, collages, essays, “antidotes, anecdotes and accusations” ranging from explorations of the differences between poetry and prose to scathing attacks on the forces of power that corrupt culture for financial or political gain.
With Access to the Silence (2004) compiles his poetic works from 1984 to 2003, exploring the experimental and the surreal to a greater degree without losing any of his truthfulness or openness.
Glasgow patter
Glaswegian or The Glasgow Patter is a dialect spoken in and around Glasgow, Scotland. In addition to local West Mid Scots, the dialect has Highland English and Hiberno-English influences, owing to the speech of Highlanders and Irish people, who migrated in large numbers to the Glasgow area in the...
.
Tom Leonard has been part of the Scottish literary renaissance for the past forty years. With Alasdair Gray
Alasdair Gray
Alasdair Gray is a Scottish writer and artist. His most acclaimed work is his first novel Lanark, published in 1981 and written over a period of almost 30 years...
and James Kelman
James Kelman
James Kelman is an influential writer of novels, short stories, plays and political essays. His novel A Disaffection was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1989...
, he has been appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Glasgow University.
Published in 1976, his Glasgow Poems kick-started a literary counterculture.
In 1984 he released Intimate Voices, a selection of his work from 1965 onwards including poems and essays on William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
and “the nature of hierarchical diction in Britain.” It shared the award for Scottish Book of the Year and yet was banned from Central Region
Central Region, Scotland
Central Region was a local government region of Scotland from 1975 to 1996. It is now divided into the council areas of Falkirk, Stirling, and Clackmannanshire, which had previously been districts within Central...
school libraries. Peter Manson
Peter Manson
Peter Manson is a contemporary Scottish poet. His books include Between Cup and Lip . For the Good of Liars , Adjunct: an Undigest , Before and After Mallarmé , Two renga Peter Manson (born 1969) is a contemporary Scottish poet. His books include Between Cup and Lip (Miami University Press,...
, in the Poetry Review, claimed the poems, “speak so precisely and with such a fierce, analytical wit that they transcend their status as poems and become part of the shared apparatus we use to think with. I don't know any other contemporary poetry of which that is so true.”
His poem "The Six O'Clock News" from Unrelated Incidents
Unrelated Incidents
Unrelated Incidents is a series of poems by Tom Leonard. Written in 1976, One of the better-known of this series is "The Six o'clock news" where the poem takes the form of a Glaswegian as a BBC newsreader.The poem tackles working class alienation....
is compulsory study for an AQA English Language GCSE qualification in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
Whilst working as Writer in Residence at Renfrew District Libraries in 1990 Leonard compiled Radical Renfrew: Poetry from the French Revolution to the First World War, an anthology resurrecting the work of long forgotten poets from the West of Scotland and disproving the “traditional”, fictitious belief that Scotland at that time was a cultural wasteland. T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
once claimed, to the effect, that Scotland has no literary culture. Radical Renfrew shows that this is incorrect and also suggests that in denying the existence of a native Scottish culture, the Scottish people have been denied “the right to equality of dialogue with those in possession of Queen's English or "good" Scots.”
Three years later he released Places of the Mind, the only 20th century biographical novel
Biographical novel
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional and usually entertaining account of a person's life. This kind of novel concentrates on the experiences a person had during his lifetime, the people he met and the incidents which occurred are detailed and sometimes...
of the Scottish writer James Thomson
James Thomson (B.V.)
James Thomson , who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night , an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment.-Life:Thomson was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, and, after...
. Best known for his epic poem The City Of Dreadful Night, Thomson’s life and works are captured by Leonard in a study of poetry, alcoholism and freethinking.
His most overtly political work followed in 1995. Reports From The Present compiles work from 1982 to 1994 including political satires, collages, essays, “antidotes, anecdotes and accusations” ranging from explorations of the differences between poetry and prose to scathing attacks on the forces of power that corrupt culture for financial or political gain.
With Access to the Silence (2004) compiles his poetic works from 1984 to 2003, exploring the experimental and the surreal to a greater degree without losing any of his truthfulness or openness.