The Writers of Wales Database

CURTIS, TONY

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Poet, critic and short-story writer. Born in Carmarthen in 1946, Tony studied as an undergraduate at Swansea University. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont and became a schoolteacher before returning to academia. He is a well known and highly regarded poet, having published numerous collections including War Voices (Seren, 1995); The Arches (with John Digby) (Seren, 1998) and Heaven's Gate (Seren, 2001). He is Professor of Poetry at the University of Glamorgan and teaches on the M.Phil. in Writing which he founded. Tony has also published works of literary criticism, both as author and editor.

Tony broadcasts regularly and has given lectures and readings widely, on both sides of the Atlantic. Formerly Chairman of the Welsh Academy of Writers, he won the Eric Gregory Award in 1972 and the Welsh Arts Council Young Poets Prize in 1974. Tony was also winner of the UK National Poetry Competition in 1984, the Greenwich Festival Poetry Prize in 1990, the Dylan Thomas Prize in 1993 and a Cholmondeley Award in 1997.  In 2001 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a D. Litt in 2004. He is a Fellow of The Welsh Academy.

Reviews:

"…Crossing Over is Tony Curtis at his very best: forceful, eloquent and rich in artistry…"
Helen Dunmore

Selected Publications:

Poetry
Album (Christopher Davies, 1974)
Deerslayers (Cwm Nedd Press, 1978)
Carnival (Alun Books, 1978)
Preparations (Gomer 1980)
Letting Go (Poetry Wales Press, 1983)
Selected Poems 1970-1985 (Seren, 1986)
Selected Poems 1970–1985 (Story Line Press, USA 1986)
The Last Candles (Seren, 1989)
Taken for Pearls: New Poems (Seren, 1993)
War Voices (Seren, 1995)
The Arches (with artist John Digby) (Seren, 1998)
Assemblea di Poeti (Mobydick, Italy 1998)
Confine Dal (Mobydick, Italy 2000)
Heaven’s Gate (Seren, 2001)
Considering Cassandra: Poems and a Story (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2003)
Crossing Over (Seren, 2007)
Eight Pegs (Mulfran Press, 2011)

Criticism
The Art of Seamus Heaney (Poetry Wales Press, 1982; further editions to 2001)
Writers of Wales: Dannie Abse (University of Wales Press, 1985)
Wales: The Imagined Nation (editor) (Seren, 1986)
How to Study Contemporary Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990)
How Poets Work (editor) Seren, 1996)
Welsh Painters Talking (Seren, 1997)
Welsh Artists Talking (editor) (Seren, 2000)

Other
Real South Pembrokeshire (Seren, 2011)

Edited and Contributed to:
The Poetry of Pembrokeshire (editor) (Seren, 1989)
The Poetry of Snowdonia (editor) (Seren, 1989)
Love from Wales (co-editor) (Seren, 1991)
The Painter's Quarry (contributor) (Seren, 2006)
Poesie Des Regions D’europe: Poèmes Du Pays De Galles (featured poet, Revue de la Maison de la Poesie, Namur 1994)
Coal: An Anthology of Mining (editor) (Seren, 1997)
After First Death: An Anthology of Wales and the War in the Twentieth Century (editor) (Seren, 2007)
Wales at War: Critical Essays on Literature and Art (editor) (Seren, 2007)
After the First Death: An Anthology of Wales and War (editor) (Seren, 2007)
Library of Wales: Poetry 1900-2000 (contributor) (Parthian, 2009)
Love from Wales - An Anthology (co-editor) (Seren, 2009)
The Meaning of Apricot Sponge: The Selected Writings of John Tripp (editor) (Parthian, 2010)
Alchemy of Water/Alcemi Dŵr (co-writer) (Gomer, 2011)
Kaleidoscope - An Anthology of Poetry Sequences (contributor) (Cinnamon, 2011)




After the First Death: An Anthology of Wales and War (editor) (Seren, 2007)

This anthology contains writing by many of the greatest authors of Wales. From Wilfred Owen and David Jones, Dylan Thomas and Dannie Abse to Christopher Meredith and Gillian Clarke, it spans a century which saw both the barbarism of mechanised warfare and the development of mass communication, mass literacy and a flourishing of creative endeavour.

After the First Death draws on the experience of those who have faced death on the battlefield, and on others who have sought to put into words the complex philosophical, political and emotional responses that military action demands. Including poetry, extracts from fiction, memoirs, letters and biography, the book moves from World War One via the ideological battleground of the 1930s into the Second World War, then through the Cold War, Vietnam, the Falklands and the Gulf wars.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Crossing Over (Seren, 2007)

Tony Curtis’ wide-ranging interests in visual art, the impact of war and the nature of friendship coalesce in his latest collection, Crossing Over. A number of the poems take their inspiration from great artists, from early religious icons to expressionist canvasses, from a ‘buttery girl’ in a Flemish Landscape to the chainsaw sculptures of David Nash. There are also a series of sumptuous poems about travelling, including ‘Postcards from Tuscany’ where the lush beauty of the landscape contrasts with the poet’s mood, saddened by the death of a friend. There are several poems about America, from Yosemite on the West Coast to Jones Beach on the Eastern seaboard. The sonnet about his granddaughter opens this varied and striking collection, which shows the work of a poet writing with power, honesty and sensitivity.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

The portrait of Tony featured here is by painter Lorraine Bewsey. It forms part of a twenty-piece collection entitled Portraits of Welsh Writers. Lorraine can be contacted at lorraine@lorrainesartstudio.co.uk