Featured Poets 2007

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Featured Poets 2007

This section aims to showcase poets by presenting a selection of their work and a biography based on their writing career.

If you would like to be a Featured Poet on the website, please submit a biography with a photograph and a small selection of your poems.

Submission Guidelines

Margaret Pedley

I am a fabulous fiftyish year old, and have been writing poetry for
about three years, what I want to do of course is to write a book, which is much harder than scribbling poetry! I would benefit greatly from a writing course, and intend to go on one as soon as my finances permit!

Keith Robson

I am a 61 year old man living in Northumberland, who has been writing poetry for only the last four years, gaining great enjoyment from it. I mostly enjoy writing rhymed work, as opposed to prose, Rhymed work is beautiful, as long as it is done properly, and interwoven with good imagery, although I do write quite a bit of prose also.

Alison Wade

I’m from St Helena, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, unique and peaceful. I’ve been writing poetry since I was 12 years old, and won my first prize at my school for Hard Times on St Helena, a poem about how life use to be.

I have always loved writing poetry, and recently some of my poems have been used as songs, just changing a few words. I was really excited when 3 of my songs was released. I was overwhelmed when I won the prize for October, it has boost my spirit for the new year and I certainly will continue to write.

Rob Cunningham - Caskie

I spent my early life in Liverpool 8, playing hide and seek in the `Debri`s, (Derelict houses), and footie on the `Debri`s, (Waste ground) in and around the Maple Grove, Sefton & Princes Park areas, Whilst being educated at Tiber St. Infants & Junior School off Lodge Lane.

My Parents relocated to Cheshire in the late sixties , we,. as their children were granted two choices so took them both,.. our hearts stayed at home, and the rest went to `Bloody Winfield` as I thought it was called, where I was sure I would need a new language.

Marcia Calame

I am a writer of all things truthful, amusing, and inspirational. I write knowing that my roots are important to it me, so therefore, it is always, my underlay for whatever I write.

To me, poetry is more than just rhyming. It is an avenue to many possibilities and an opening for my inner self.

I believe the only way, to write, is to have the experience, be true to myself and allow my expressions to run freely.

Sheila Gee

Anyway, I just started writing poetry a year ago. I am a late starter. I'm 50 now. I can't recall having written any other poetry before then although perhaps I was made to write one for a project in school. Now though, poetry has a hold on me and I find I'm writing poetry most days. I enjoy rhyming but I do try to occasionally write non-rhyming stuff.

I love Spike Milligan and Pam Ayres and I also enjoy Wendy Cope's work.
Read More

Leanne Bridgewater

I stroll as Leanne Bridgewater, I thy lady child of 17 from Birmingham, UK. I believe life is all you need to feel alive and that you can only speak on behalf of yourself.

In my poetry I talk of life the most - it's meanings, uses and activities, its expressions and how others react to them. I merge grammar problems and twisted lingo to inspire confusion leaving my rhyme state to come and goes as it pleases. I never take more than 20 minutes on a poem. I urge the random and notion. I love having time to think. As a child I thought too much so now I just kill my brain with alcohol to slow it down.

Marvin Dawkins

Marvin Dawkins, but people call him dawks, Marvin was born in North west London where he lived with his family, growing up he was the type of person considered to be shy, his drawing ability spoke for itself and so did his creative writing, which included poetry and these were during his school years, after leaving school he never wrote poetry again.

Charles McInally

I was born in Dundee on the East Coast of Scotland and I am currently aged 48. I landed in Yorkshire around 1989 as my final posting in the Royal Corps of Signals. When I was leaving I saw an advert for Signalling and ended up working for the railway (slightly different but just as interesting) so I stopped in York and have lived in that area ever since.

English is a great language to write in but I am a purist and like to see it grammatically correct and spot on with regards to spelling.

Diane Crouch

I am thrilled that my poem "Architect of my Disaster" has been selected as Poem of the month! I am passionate about my writing and couldn’t believe it when I heard this poem was chosen as it is a personal favourite (I must confess to getting a bit emotional! )

I live in Bedfordshire and have two children. Matt, 28 is a police officer and Nikki, a nanny, is 23. They have always shown unconditional love and support to me and have tirelessly listened to all my poems over the years. I absolutely love to write and am so grateful for the support from my children. They have always been such an inspiration to me.

Adeiza Atureta

I am Atureta Adeiza, African (of the western sub-region).
I am of Nigerian descent. I live in the capital city of Abuja where it's quite hot in most part of the year.
I studied Mass Communication in the largest citadel of learning, South of the Sahara and North of the Limpopo. I'm talking of the Ahmadu Bello University,Zaria, Nigeria.
I write poetry pretty well with quite a collection to show at any given period in time. I started this in 1996. I was quite young then.

Bernadette O'Reilly

My Name is Bernadette O' Reilly, 36, Abbotstown Drive, Finglas West, Dublin 11, Ireland.
I have been writing poetry since '81. I have been published in numerous times by Forward Press and publications in Ireland.
Read More

Cameron Steel

My name is Cameron Steel and I'm a student from Glasgow, I have a keen interest in both reading and writing poetry, this however is my first attempt at to getting my work published, I believe that my poems would be an asset to your website. I have attached a small selection of my work for your consideration.
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Dianne Audrey Daniels

My name is Dianne Audrey Daniels and I started to write poetry in nineteen-sixty nine as a way of expressing my feelings and emotions. Writing poetry not only helps you to offload any anger that you have but when there is sadness in your life and you put it into words it helps you to see it more clearly.
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Andrew Blakemore

I was born in the town of Aldridge in the West Midlands on January 1^st 1966 and was educated at Aldridge Comprehensive School. From about the age of 16 I started to write verse. I had taken up playing the guitar in the sixth form and started to write some songs. It was something that I really enjoyed doing and have continued ever since. Music remained my first love and I graduated in Music with the Open University in 1999. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that I started to seriously write poetry. You could call it fate or destiny in the way that it happened.

Clive Atkins

Clive Atkins was born in 1953 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Like a lot of people in High Wycombe his family worked in the chair making industry, his father being a chair maker. He had a happy childhood with his mother and father and younger brother and lived in a council house in the Micklefield district. Clive is married with three grown up sons and now lives in Northamptonshire.

Angelita Redfern

When I came to live & joined my husband here in England in 1992 from the Philippines, I suffered from a culture shock which I think will be the effect of immigrating in a different country, so I decided to find the easiest way how to confront this sort of anxiety, especially if the people around me and my new family tried to helped me to adopt into my new way of life.

Mrs Ann Potkins

I have always enjoyed writing, and was encouraged by my English teacher at school, although it’s only during the last few years, after being inspired to enter a national competition, that I’ve had any of my poetry published. I didn’t win, but had the poem published in another anthology and felt encouraged to write more.

The SubStation - John

I have 5 Children and a 15 month old Grandson. I also run a business from home so have not had much time to write my poems for a while. I have been writing poetry for as long as I can remember, and many of them have been lost over the years.

Claire King

I started writing poems when I was about seven or eight for fun and I used to show them to my parents and teacher miss Newman who was always really supportive. I think that support has always inspired and stayed with me from that age, and I know she’d be proud of me now if she knew that I’m still writing. So, I’d like to say thanks to her for believing in me, and setting up a creative writing group at my junior school all those years ago.

Carol Reeves

I have written around 50 poems which I hope to publish. However, I would like to share a few on your website. I was impressed with Tony Gardner's and Candice Toby's poems and am inspired to submit a few of my own. My poetry has always been a way of expressing various emotions so it is quite diverse. I hope people will be able to feel a connection whilst they read it.

Doreen Hampshire

Hello, I am a 67 year grandma and great grand, and very family orientated. I write and read poetry because I love to do so. and I have only been writing poetry myself since the year 2000. I am self taught but I can write about any subject. Thank you all for reading some of my work.

Fiona Gunn

I was born and brought up in Scotland and live in Hamilton. I am 35years old and have an 11yr old son. I sustained a rare traumatic brain injury in 1995, many of the poems I write are autobiographical and have been written during my recovery. I have had many poems published via forward press and have been a Spotlight poet twice.

Joe Enright

My name is Joe Enright, I'm a thirty year old engineer living in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I've lived in the UK now for 6 years. I took up writing songs when I was 17 and my poetry is an off shoot of that. I write about what's on my mind, sometimes dark stuff and some times lighter.

David Mayombwe

I’m a Ugandan poet, soon turning 28 and I’ve been writing for 10 years now, that since I found a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales carelessly tossed on a bed in boarding school (I appropriately stole it). I am interested in poetry in all its diversity, from the ancient to the modern to contemporary to oral forms. Anyway my poems speak more of myself than I ever could. You can find a few at my space at www.myspace.com/mayombwe . I’ll see you when I see you.

Dave Sanderson

Born in 1949, the second eldest of four children, an older sister, and two younger brothers. My childhood was slightly turbulent in the early years, one brother had severe medical, and mental problems, and my father had a variety of jobs, some well paid, others not so! We tended to move around quite a lot, our own homes, caravans, relatives homes, until my teenage years, when we finally began to settle down somewhat. As a young child, I was taught to be creative by my mother, who was always singing, writing poetry, or playing her beloved piano, so I took to writing poetry myself. Several of my childhood poems were even published in the children's section, of the local newspaper, along with one of my short stories.

Edward Jones

Edward Jones is an 18 year old poet and novelist. Apart from living in Spain for 6 months he has lived in England for all of his life, and has been writing things sporadically since he was a child. In the last few years writing has moved to the forefront of his mind, and his recent move to Austria, and end of his A-level studies has presented the ideal opportunity for him to write, before pursuing a degree, and hopefully a career in advertising. His novel, 'The Embrace of Traitors' (working title), is set during the Crusades, a period for which he has always had a deep appreciation, and has influenced his poetry, as well as the Ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. Themes of death, war, nature and hope permeate his work.

Clare Hunter

Despite always having been interested in literature at school, I studied Mathematics at university on a random impulse, and at 23 am now working as an accountant in Birmingham. I've been writing ridiculous amounts of poetry ever since the age of eight when i was encouraged by being published in a children's anthology.

Dave Pearson

I was born in Leeds in 1951. We moved around quite a lot, as my father, a printer's compositor, was constantly trying to avoid redundancy.
I was educated in York and Hinckley and Nuneaton in the Midlands and in 1972, I went to Matlock College of Higher Education to train as a French teacher.

Malachy Trainor

Armagh City poet Malachy Trainor, age 53, was born in the 1950s and was a former Republican prisoner. He became involved in politics from an early age. During the hunger strikes in 1981 he was in the Kesh and while serving time on the blanket he began to write poetry as a way of expression. He has not stopped writing since and devotes himself to being a full time writer. He is extremely enthusiastic and very competitive, hoping to become a well-known figure in the poetry scene. He describes his creative process as ‘turning on the tap’.

Bryan Harrison

I have been writing poems now for two years, mainly for fun and to get a few strange and sometimes abstract thoughts on to paper. I will write about anything as long as it relates to myself, my life, my friends etc. The word self-centred may be floating around your head and you may be right - but it's what I feel comfortable writing.

If you want facts and not description, I am 28 years old and have now been married to the greatest woman in the world for 6 months. As well as this I find a bit of time to be a deputy head of a primary school. If you want to know anything else, well...you can't. Here are a few of my poems.

Tony Gardner

I have been writing for over 45 years, Starting with what I hoped to be song lyrics in the 1960's. The Beatles were not my inspiration, country music was, and I have always tried to write honest, simple and direct poetry, with no pretensions. I was born in Guernsey, and that has always been an inspiration, but have lived the last 8 years or so in West Sussex. My work has been published in poetry magazines. both the Guernsey and Sussex local press, and it has also been heard on local radio. Also I have recently self-published a small volume of my poems.

Candice Toby

Hi, I'm 24 years old, I've always had a love for poetry and but never really wrote anything my self..

After losing my Dad last year, it was suggested that I wrote down my thoughts and feelings and before I knew it I was writing poetry for him.

Please see a few I have wrote attached.

Lozi Bolton

Lozi Bolton is an all-round artistic, christian hippy who has always enjoyed the literary scene. The writing seed was planted as soon as she read famous works by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis when she was a child. These books caused her to catch the creative writing bug and so thus she experimented with many forms. Going onto school, Lozi relished her English lessons and was introduced to pieces by Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare and Jeanette Winterson. Having found that these writers styles were valid and similar to hers, her passion for poetry grew. Now she is a 20 year old BMus student, studying the bassoon at the Royal Welsh College for Music and Drama in Cardiff, and is currently honing her poetical skills.
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Lindsey Priest

I was given a diary at the beginning of 2006 and wondered how I would fill each page. With a poem was my bright idea. Therefore, I started to write a poem every day. I found that I could usually join in any discussion by declaring 'I've got a poem about that!' I have written about school life (I'm a Primary Schoool teacher), about my family and family tree, the weather, pets, retirements, dinner parties, love affairs, money, buying a car, holidays, in fact, almost everything. I intended to stop writing at the end of the year (to take up slimming) but I have found that I can do both!

Statistically, I am fifty two years old, have been married for thirty one years and have two lovely daughters. I have taught for thirty years and have had Parkinsons Disease for twelve years. I wish time didn't go so fast.
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Ed Cesar

Ed Cesar is a twenty-five year old musician, poet, artist and photographer currently residing in the beautiful city of Bath. He has done a lot of travelling in his lifetime having lived in such diverse parts of the world as Kuwait and Bahrain in the Middle East, to various countries in Europe such as Portugal, Spain and France. This has given him a lot of insight into other cultures and a lot of inspiration for his artistic projects. He is currently the songwriter and frontman in the band The Dusty Stars (www.myspace.com/thedustystars) in which he has written over 50 songs alone including a 13-track 'modern fairytale' entitled Munchen Moderne. He has also recently set up a solo page on the internet (www.myspace.com/edcesar). The themes of childhood and innocence are prevelent throughout his music and his poetry. He is also inspired by cultural mythology especially Greek Mythology having studied Classical Civilisation at school and visited many ancient sites in Greece. He has not read much contempory poetry himself, rather he chooses to rely simply on his own love of words and imagery. He does however cite the works of Blake, Wilde, Byron and Keats as favourites.

Julius Man

I'm 30 years old and live in Cheltenham. I like the countryside round my way. Like a fairly broad mix of cultural type things, I've recently been listening to some of my old skool hip hop albums. I love reggae music. I've also been listening to a band called Arab Strap. Poetry wise I prefer more mainstream writers such as Roger Mcgough and Sophie Hannah. I like biscuits. I'm interested in the country of Burma(Myanmar) in South East Asia which is what one of my poems here is based on. My poetry tends to be serious but I hope entertaining as well as thoughtful and thought provoking.

Aderemi Adegbite

Aderemi Adegbite, a Nigerian based in Lagos has engrave his name in the literary environ with his poetry that is purely African. His works always have an undertone of African consciousness and some dwell on the values, arts and culture of the entire Black race. Most of his works have been published abroad in different anthologies alongside works of literary giants (renowned poets) in the United Kingdom and Journals in Nigeria.

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Submission Guidelines: Poems of no more than 30 lines in length each will be considered.

Post your poems to Featured Poets, Forward Press Ltd, Remus House, Coltsfoot Drive, Peterborough PE2 9JX (Write your name and address on each piece of work you send)

Or email your poems to inbox@forwardpress.co.uk (Enter Featured Poets in the subject line, including your name and postal address)

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