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List of Anthologies, Literary Histories & Critical Texts

Anthologies

• ed Michael Horovitz, Children of Albion (Penguin, 1969)

Pure Sixties neo-Blakean ecstasy! Pioneers, beats, Cambridge poets, Michael X, John Arden, Lee Harwood (everyone bar the Liverpool Poets)

• ed Edward Lucie-Smith, British Poetry Since 1945 (Penguin, 1970)

Genuine attempt to map all varieties of British poetry. Don't bother with the counter-revolutionary 1985 edition!

• ed Andrew Crozier and Tim Longville, A Various Art (Carcanet, 1987; Paladin, 1990)

The first version of the Cambridge School, plus friends

• ed Gillian Allnutt, Fred D’Aguiar, Ken Edwards and Eric Mottram, The New British Poetry 1968-1988 (Paladin, 1988)

John Muckle was reponsible for this anthology, with separate sections for Black British Poetry, Quote Feminist Unquote Poetry, A Treacherous Assault on British Poetry ("Cambridge", "London" and other poets publishing since 1960s) and Some Younger Poets (the new generation of the "linguistically innovative poets" – mainly London-based)

• ed Iain Sinclair, Conductors of Chaos (Picador, 1996)

A wide range of poets, including some performance poets (and short selections of a number of "Forties" generation poets also)

• ed Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry. Volume Two: From Postwar to Millennium (University of California, 1998)


• ed Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970 (Wesleyan UP, 1999)


• ed Nicholas Johnson, Foil: defining poetry 1985-2000 (etruscan books, 2000)

A deliberate attempt to represent a range of new and generally unanthologised poets. Reviewed by Andrew Duncan on Great Works.

• ed Keith Tuma, Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry (Oxford UP NY, 2001)

Famous for its presentation side-by-side, on a chronological basis of Bob Cobbing next to Philip Larkin, Lee Harwood next to Seamus Heaney, Veronica Forrest-Thompson next to Liz Lochhead, this book gives the best all-round view of British poetry since the Lucie-Smith anthology, and over a wider time-scale

• ed Jeff Hilson, The Reality Street Book of Sonnets (Reality Street, 2008)

A superb gathering of what a huge number of contemporary British poets (largely) are doing with this inescapable and foundational form.

Literary Histories

• Peter Barry, Poetry Wars: British Poetry of the 1970s and the Battle of Earls Court (Salt, 2006)

There is much detailed discussion of the institutional manoeuvrings in this famous episode. But it also acts as a very good introduction to the history of the 'poetry network' in which 'avant-garde' or 'experimental' writing is dominant, its present status, and to the actual writerly qualities of the poetry. This is the book which acts as the most accessible introduction to avant-garde British poetry (if you don't get too bogged down in the Poetry Society minutes!)

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• Andrew Duncan, The Failure of Conservatism in Modern British Poetry (Salt, 2003)


• Andrew Duncan, Centre and Periphery in Modern British Poetry (Liverpool UP, 2005)


• Robert Sheppard, The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents 1950-2000 (Liverpool UP, 2005)


• Randall Stevenson, The Last Of England? The Oxford English Literary History Volume 12. 1960-2000 (OUP, 2004)

Poets on What They Do

• ed Tim Allen and Andrew Duncan, Don’t Start Me Talking: Interviews with Contemporary Poets (Salt, 2007)


• ed Denise Riley, Poets on Writing: Britain, 1970-1991 (Macmillan: Language, Discourse Society, 1992)

Critical Texts

• Ian Davidson, Ideas of Space in Contemporary Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)


• Tony Lopez, Meaning Performance: Essays on Poetry (Salt, 2006)


• Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Poetic Artifice: A theory of twentieth century poetry (Manchester UP, 1978)


• John Wilkinson, The Lyric Touch: Essays on the Poetry of Excess (Salt, 2007)


• Writers and Their Work (Northcote House in association with the British Council)

Relevant titles include:

• William Rowe, Three Modern Lyric Poets (Lee Harwood, Barry MacSweeney & Chris Torrance
• Alison Mark, Veronica Forrest-Thomson and Language Poetry
• Robert Sheppard, Iain Sinclair


• Salt

Apart from their publications of poetry, other relevant series & titles include:

• Reconstruction — essays on poetry
• Salt Companions to Literature:
• ed Cris Cheek & Robert Hampson, The Salt Companion to Allen Fisher
• ed William Rowe, The Salt Companion to Bill Griffiths
• ed Robert Sheppard, The Salt Companion to Lee Harwood
• ed Simon Perril, The Salt Companion to John James
• ed Scott Thurston. The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk
• ed Lawrence Upton. The Salt Companion to Maggie O’Sullivan
• ed Simon Perril, The Salt Companion to Denise Riley
• ed Adam Piette & Kate Price, The Salt Companion to Peter Robinson
• ed Harry Gilonis, The Salt Companion to Colin Simms
• Studies in Literature and Culture
• Robert Bond, Iain Sinclair