Peter Reading
Encyclopedia
Peter Reading was an English poet and the author of 26 collections of poetry. He is known for his choice of ugly subject matter, and use of classical metres. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry describes his verse as "strongly anti-romantic, disenchanted and usually satirical". Interviewed by Robert Potts, he described his work as a combination of "painstaking care" and "misanthropy".
. After studying painting at Liverpool College of Art
, he worked as a schoolteacher in Liverpool
(1967-68) and at Liverpool College of Art
, where he taught Art History (1968-70). He then worked for 22 years as a weighbridge operator at an animal feedmill in Shropshire
, a job which left him free to think, until he was sacked for refusing to wear a uniform introduced by new owners of the business. His only break was a two-year residency at Sunderland Polytechnic (1981-83). After leaving Liverpool, he lived for 40 years in various parts of Shropshire, in later years in Ludlow.
The benevolence of America’s Lannan Foundation rescued him from poverty. He was the first writer to hold the one-year Lannan writing residency in Marfa, Texas
(in 1999), and is the only British poet to have won the Lannan Award for Poetry twice, in 1990 and 2004, as well as the only poet to read an entire life’s work for the Lannan Foundation’s DVD archive – his filmed readings for Lannan (made in 2001 and 2010) of 26 poetry collections make up the only archive of its kind. His 1997 collection Work in Regress was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize
.
Background
Reading was educated at Alsop High SchoolAlsop High School
Alsop High School is a community secondary school in Walton, Liverpool, L4 6SH, England. It holds specialist certification in both Technology and Applied Learning .It also has a Lifestyles gym close by where the school can use it's resources....
. After studying painting at Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art is located at 68 Hope Street, in Liverpool, England. It is a Grade II listed building.The building is currently owned by Liverpool John Moores University housing its School of Social Science....
, he worked as a schoolteacher in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
(1967-68) and at Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art
Liverpool College of Art is located at 68 Hope Street, in Liverpool, England. It is a Grade II listed building.The building is currently owned by Liverpool John Moores University housing its School of Social Science....
, where he taught Art History (1968-70). He then worked for 22 years as a weighbridge operator at an animal feedmill in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, a job which left him free to think, until he was sacked for refusing to wear a uniform introduced by new owners of the business. His only break was a two-year residency at Sunderland Polytechnic (1981-83). After leaving Liverpool, he lived for 40 years in various parts of Shropshire, in later years in Ludlow.
The benevolence of America’s Lannan Foundation rescued him from poverty. He was the first writer to hold the one-year Lannan writing residency in Marfa, Texas
Marfa, Texas
Marfa is a town in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. Located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, it is also the county seat of Presidio County. The population was 1,981 at the 2010 census....
(in 1999), and is the only British poet to have won the Lannan Award for Poetry twice, in 1990 and 2004, as well as the only poet to read an entire life’s work for the Lannan Foundation’s DVD archive – his filmed readings for Lannan (made in 2001 and 2010) of 26 poetry collections make up the only archive of its kind. His 1997 collection Work in Regress was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize
T. S. Eliot Prize
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in...
.
Awards
- Cholmondeley AwardCholmondeley AwardThe Cholmondeley Award is an annual award for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966...
(1978) - Dylan Thomas Award (1983), for Diplopic
- Whitbread Prize for Poetry (1986), for Stet
- Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, 1990 and 2004.
Poetry collections
- Water and Waste (1970)
- For the Municipality's Elderly (1974)
- The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery (1976)
- Nothing for Anyone (1977)
- Fiction (1979)
- Tom o'Bedlam's Beauties (1981)
- Diplopic (1983)
- 5x5x5x5x5 (1983)
- C (1984)
- Ukulele Music (1985)
- Going On (1985)
- Essential Reading (1986)
- Stet (1986)
- Final Demands (1988)
- Perduta Gente (1989)
- Shitheads (1989)
- Three in One (1991)
- Evagatory (1992)
- Last Poems (1994)
- Collected Poems Vol 1: 1970-1984 (1995)
- Eschatological (1996)
- Collected Poems Vol 2: 1985-1996 (1996)
- Chinoiserie (1997)
- Work in Regress (1997)
- Apopthegmatic (1999)
- Ob (1999)
- Repetitious (1999)
- Marfan (2000)
- [untitled] (2001)
- Faunal (2002)
- Civil (2002)
- Collected Poems Vol 3: 1997-2003 (2003)
- -273.15 (2005)
- Vendange Tardive (2010)
Further reading
See also
- English translations of Homer: Peter Reading