M. A. Griffiths
Encyclopedia
Life
Margaret Ann Griffiths, who was of English and Welsh parentage, was born and raised in London and studied archaeology at Cardiff UniversityCardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
. She lived for some time in Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
and later moved to Poole
Poole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...
, where she cared for her ailing parents until their deaths in 1993.
Griffiths, also known by the Internet pseudonyms "grasshopper" and "Maz", began posting her poetry online in 2001. Rather than seek publication through traditional channels, she was content to share her work with fellow poets on various Internet forums, including Sonnet Central, where she volunteered as a moderator. On the rare occasions she submitted work for publication, it was typically to online venues such as Snakeskin, miller's pond, and the Shit Creek Review
Shit Creek Review
The Shit Creek Review is an online literary and art magazine . Its content is mostly related to poetry, and includes work belonging the differing styles of formalism and free verse by established authors and new writers...
. During the mid-2000s she worked from home, running a small Internet-based business, and edited the Poetry Worm, a monthly periodical distributed by email.
Griffiths suffered for years from a stomach ailment which eventually proved fatal. She died in July 2009.
Poetry
Griffiths wrote on a wide array of subjects, in both free verse and traditional forms. Although she often posted at poetry forums popular with formalistsNew Formalism
New Formalism is a late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse.-Origins and intentions:...
, she eschewed such categories, writing, "The division between free and formal verse, as if one is better than the other, bewilders me." Largely ignoring contemporary trends and schools, she was more likely to make imaginative use of voice and setting than to experiment radically with language, and often wrote narrative poems and dramatic monologues in the voices of historical figures and fictional characters.
Although little known to academic critics, M. A. Griffiths acquired a significant international readership over the years, many of her admirers serious poets themselves. In 2008, her "Opening a Jar of Dead Sea Mud" won Eratosphere's
Eratosphere
Eratosphere is the largest online workshop for formal poetry -- it is free to join. Additionally, it caters to free verse, poetry and prose translation, fiction, art, literary criticism and critical discussions on writing. It was founded in 1999 by Alexander Pepple as a workshop complement to Able...
annual Sonnet Bake-off, and was praised by Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
. Later that year she was a Guest Poet on the Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
website, where she was hailed as "one of the up-and-coming poets of our time". After her death, the American poet Timothy Murphy
Timothy Murphy (poet)
Timothy Murphy is an American poet, farmer, and businessman. He has published two collections of poetry that have been widely reviewed...
wrote, "It is a shame that Margaret Griffiths never took the TLS, PN Review, and Faber by storm. They would have been the better for it. But that wouldn't have been her style. Instead she frequented little 'zines and won our hearts pseudonymously. She was a masterful poet, and she is deeply missed."
Posthumous publication
Almost immediately after her death was announced on Eratosphere, poets from all over the English-speaking world began collecting her work for posthumous publication. Roger Collett of Arrowhead Press (a not-for-profit in County Durham, England), who had requested a manuscript from Griffiths while she was alive, offered to publish a collection. David Anthony of Stoke Poges, Buckingham, England, took the lead in securing legal permission. Poets and editors formed a grassroots task force to help produce and promote the book, with members from London, Derbyshire, Scotland, Wales, Queensland, New South Wales, Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Missouri, Maryland, California and Texas.Books
- Grasshopper: The Poetry of M. A. Griffiths (Arrowhead Press, 2011) ISBN 978-1-904852-28-5
External links
- Grasshopper: The Poetry of M. A. Griffiths, Arrowhead Press (UK), January 2011
- Grasshopper: The Poetry of M. A. Griffiths, Able Muse Press (USA and Canada), April 2011
- "Admirers rescue internet poet from virtual oblivion after death", The Times of London, 11 February 2011 (subscribers only)
- "Reclusive Poole poet built worldwide following", The Bournemouth Echo, 1 October 2009
- i.m.o. grasshopper, memorial website with announcements and links
- Review of Grasshopper by Maryann CorbettMaryann CorbettMaryann Corbett is an American poet.She grew up in northern Virginia. She graduated from the University of Minnesota, with a doctorate in English....
in RATTLERATTLERATTLE is an award-winning poetry magazine based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1994, the magazine is published by the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation. Established writers such as Philip Levine, Jane Hirshfield, Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Gregory Orr, and others have appeared in RATTLE,...
, March 2011 - M. A. Griffiths memorial issue of the Shit Creek ReviewShit Creek ReviewThe Shit Creek Review is an online literary and art magazine . Its content is mostly related to poetry, and includes work belonging the differing styles of formalism and free verse by established authors and new writers...
, February 2011 - "Goodbye Grasshopper" by Alan Wickes, September 2009
- "Burgundy" by Rob Godfrey, September 2009
- The Poetry Worm, formerly edited by M. A. Griffiths