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John Birtwhistle | |
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| Born | John Birtwhistle 28 June 1946 Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England |
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John Birtwhistle (born 1946) is an English poet published by Carcanet Press.[1] His libretto for David Blake’s opera The Plumber’s Gift (1989) was staged by English National Opera at the London Coliseum and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.[2]
Career
[edit]Birtwhistle won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 1975.[3] His poetry has been recognized by an Arts Council bursary, an Arts Council creative writing fellowship (1976–78), a writing fellowship at the University of Southampton (1978–80) and a Poetry Book Society recommendation for Our Worst Suspicions (1985).
Birtwhistle has had three concert libretti set and performed.[4] Some of his early poems were translated by Ștefan Augustin Doinaș and published in Romanian.[5] His 1996 libretto for The Fabulous Adventures of Alexander the Great by composer David Blake was translated into Greek.[4]: 2
From 1980 to 1992, Birtwhistle was a Lecturer in English at the University of York, teaching mainly the seventeenth century and Romantic periods.[1] He has written on Goethe’s Italian Journey[6] and on Humphry Davy.[7] He has edited and annotated John Clare's essay Popularity in Authorship.[8] From 2012 to 2017, he was a literary contributor and eventually an Associate Editor of the quarterly BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care.[1] Birtwhistle is married to a Consultant Anaesthetist and since 1992 he has lived in Sheffield with his family.[1]
Critical reception
[edit]Birtwhistle has been described by Ian Hughes as a "master craftsman."[9] Dick Davis wrote that Birtwhistle’s poems “celebrate the vulnerable and immediate.”[10] Dennis O’Driscoll commented in Hibernia that "a sweeping imagination ranges over past and future, pastoral and urban themes" and John Heath-Stubbs described Birtwhistle as "an ambitious and original poet, not afraid to take chances", singling out a group of poems on Connemara as "altogether admirable for their exact and loving observation."[11] Peter Jay wrote that Birtwhistle "produces a dazzling array of poems on a range of historical, political and personal subjects. These lucid, witty, tender poems, by turns serious and comic, are full of felicitous surprises and unexpected turns of imagination."[12] Poet Carol Rumens wrote in The Guardian that "[Birtwhistle's] work is consistently both shaped and calm, and energised by the various tides it travels."[13]
Bibliography
[edit]- The Conversion to Oil of the Lots Road London Transport Power Station, and Other Poems (London: Anvil Press Poetry in association with Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972) ISBN 0-900977-36-1
- Vision of Wat Tyler (With etchings and calligraphy by Graham Clarke. Boughton Monchelsea, Kent: Ebenezer Press, 1972) ISBN 0950235709
- Haysaving: a Connemara Journal (Maidstone/Boughton Monchelsea, Kent: Trembling Hand Press/Ebenezer Press, 1975) ISBN 0-905038-00-2
- Tidal Models (London: Anvil Press Poetry in association with Rex Collings, 1980) ISBN 0-85646-052-4[14]
- Our Worst Suspicions (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1985) ISBN 0-85646-131-8.
- The Plumber's Gift. Opera in Two Acts (Libretto for music by David Blake. London: Novello, 1988)
- A Selection of Poems (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1989) ISBN 0-85646-215-2
- The Griffin's Tale. Legend for Baritone and Orchestra (Libretto for music by David Blake. York: University of York Music Press, 1994) ISMN M570200771
- The Fabulous Adventures of Alexander the Great (Libretto for music by David Blake. York: University of York Music Press, 1996) ISMN 570200733
- Rings of Jade. Poems from the Prison Diaries of Ho Chi Minh (Song cycle for music for medium voice and orchestra by David Blake. York: University of York Music Press, 2005) ISMN M570208357
- A Swallow (Song for soprano set by David Blake. York: University of York Music Press, 2008) ISMN M570360437; David Blake, Songs and Epigrams for Voice and Piano (York: University of York Music Press, 2016) ASIN B07WR3B82C
- Eventualities (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2013) ISBN 978-0-85646-451-5
- In the Event (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2020) ISBN 978-1-78410-993-6
- Partial Shade: Poems New & Selected (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2023) ISBN 978-1-80017-323-1[15]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Publisher's biography Retrieved 6 November 2016.
- ^ The Plumber's Gift - BBC Radio 3 - 9 June 1989
- ^ "The Eric Gregory Trust Fund Awards: Past Winners". Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 8 September 2016.
- ^ a b University of York Music Press profile of composer David Blake [1]
- ^ Introductory note in Haysaving (1975).
- ^ Goethe-Bibliographie 1950 - 1990
- ^ History of Anaesthesia Society, Vol 25 (1999)[2] p.48-51, and Vol 28 (2000) [3] p. 6 and 24
- ^ John Clare Popularity in Authorship Retrieved 10 October 2020
- ^ Hughes, Ian: Review of "Tidal Models", Poetry Review.
- ^ Dick Davis, PN Review 17 (1981)
- ^ Our Worst Suspicions on Carcanet Press website Retrieved 10 October 2020
- ^ Eventualities on Carcanet Press website Retrieved 10 October 2020
- ^ Rumens, Carol (9 November 2020). "Poem of the week: On a Pebbly Beach by John Birtwhistle". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
- ^ Welsh Arts Council, Poetry Wales, Volume 18, 1983, p. 41
- ^ "https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=2471"
External links
[edit]
- John Birtwhistle reads his poem about Joseph Wright's portrait of John Whitehurst (video)
- Text and discussion (for Broomhill Festival 2020) of five poems from In The Event
- Poems after Ritsos and Bede, from Our Worst Suspicions
- Extract from introduction to ‘Change of Domicile’ by Clive James, in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
- John Birtwhistle on WorldCat
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