The Writers of Wales Database

GREGSON, IAN

English Department, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd  LL57 2DG
Tel: 01248 382112
Email:  i.gregson@bangor.ac.uk

Ian Gregson was born in Manchester in 1953. He read English at Oxford and completed a PhD at the University of Hull. He has contributed poems and reviews to periodicals for thirty years. In 1981 he received a Gregory Award for his poetry, which has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, The Independent and the London Review of Books amongst others. His poetry was also featured in the anthology A Rumoured City: New Poets from Hull (Bloodaxe, 1982), edited by Douglas Dunn. One of Ian's poems was the subject of a column in The Times - printed in full and analysed in detail. He has also reviewed poetry for a wide range of journals. 

Ian's Call Centre Love Song (Salt Publishing), published in 2006, was shortlisted for a Forward Prize. He lectures on 19th and 20th Century Poetry, American Literature, Contemporary Literature, The Short Story and Creative Writing at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Reviews:

"…Master of form and range, approachable, readable, enjoyable, Ian Gregson is one of those poets whose work you carry with you. Delve and be lifted, read and be transformed…"
Peter Finch

"…Gregson’s work is characterised by a belief that poetry should include and incorporate modern experience and not simply cordon off a special lyric arena where the world stops and ’poetry’ begins. But he is also committed to a poetry that communicates, and whose relationship with popular culture is neither self-conscious nor arm’s-length. These poems may be playful or they may be serious, but they are always formally inventive, resourceful, various in their voices and wide-ranging in their concerns…"
Patrick McGuinness

With respect to How We Met (Salt Publishing, 2008)

"…a book to savour…"
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch


Selected Publications:
Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism: Dialogue and Estrangement (Macmillan / St Martin’s Press, 1996)
The Male Image: Representations of Masculinity in Postwar Poetry (Macmillan / St Martin’s Press, 1999)
Postmodern Literature (Arnold, 2004)
Call Centre Love Song (Salt Publishing, 2006)
Character and Satire in Post–war Fiction: Satirising the Self (Continuum International Publishing Group - Academi, 2006)
The New Poetry in Wales (University of Wales Press, 2007)
How We Met (Salt Publishing, 2008)
Not Tonight Neil (Cinnamon, 2011)
Simon Armitage (Salt Publshing, 2011)

Contributed to:
A Rumoured City: New Poets from Hull (contributor) (Bloodaxe, 1982)
Old City, New Rumours (co-editor) (Five Leaves, 2010)

Eligible Writers on Tour Subjects Offered:

1. Poetry readings with question and answer sessions.
2. Writing workshops

AGE RANGE: Adults.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Performance space, PA for large audiences, overnight accommodation when necessary.