List Of Writers

CURTIS, TONY

Pentwyn, 55 Colcot Road, Barry CF6 8BQ
Tel: (01446) 740046

Poet, critic and short–story writer. Born Carmarthen 1946, Tony was a schoolteacher and lecturer, and is now a Professor of Poetry at the University of Glamorgan and Director of the M.A. in Writing. He has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont. Tony broadcasts regularly and has appeared widely on both sides of the Atlantic. Formerly Chairman of the Welsh Academy of Writers, he won the Eric Gregory Award in 1972 and the Welsh Arts Council Young Poets Prize in 1974. Tony was also winner of the UK National Poetry Competition in 1984, the Greenwich Festival Poetry Prize in 1990 and the Dylan Thomas Prize in 1993.

Reviews:

"…Crossing Over is Tony Curtis at his very best: forceful, eloquent and rich in artistry…"
Helen Dunmore

Selected Publications:
Album (Christopher Davies, 1974)
Deerslayers (Cwm Nedd Press, 1978)
Letting Go (Poetry Wales Press, 1983)
Writers of Wales: Dannie Abse (University of Wales Press, 1985)
Selected Poems 1970–1985 (Story Line Press, 1986)
Wales: The Imagined Nation (Seren, 1986)
Shifting of Stones (Beaver Row, 1986)
The Last Candles (Seren, 1989)
Carnival (Alun Books)
How to Study Contemporary Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990)
Taken for Pearls: New Poems (Seren, 1993)
This Far North (Dedalus Press, 1994)
War Voices (Seren, 1995)
As the Poet Said: Poetry Pickings and Writings (Poetry Society, 1997)
Welsh Artists Talking (Seren, 1997)
Three Songs of Home (Dedalus Press, 1998)
The Art of Seamus Heaney (Seren, 2001)
Heaven’s Gate (Seren, 2001)
The Book of Winter Cures: New and Selected Poems (Black Hills Press, 2002)
Considering Cassandra: Poems and a Story (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2003)
What Darkness Covers (Arc Publications, 2003)
The Well in the Rain: New and Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2006)
Crossing Over (Seren, 2007)

Contributed to:
The Poetry of Pembrokeshire (editor) (Seren, 1989)
The Poetry of Snowdonia (editor) (Seren, 1989)
Love from Wales (co-editor) (Seren, 1991)
Poesie Des Regions D’europe: Poèmes Du Pays De Galles (editor) (Amrywiol, 1994)
How Poets Work (editor) (Seren, 1996)
Coal: An Anthology of Mining (editor) (Seren, 1997)
The Arches (with John Digby) (Seren, 1998)
The Painter’s Quarry (contributor) (Seren, 2006)
After First Death: An Anthology of Wales and the War in the Twentieth Century (editor) (Seren, 2007)
Wales at War: Critical Essays on Literature and Art (editor) (Seren, 2007)
After the First Death: An Anthology of Wales and War (editor) (Seren, 2007)



After the First Death: An Anthology of Wales and War (editor) (Seren, 2007)

This anthology contains writing by many of the greatest authors of Wales. From Wilfred Owen and David Jones, Dylan Thomas and Dannie Abse to Christopher Meredith and Gillian Clarke, it spans a century which saw both the barbarism of mechanised warfare and the development of mass communication, mass literacy and a flourishing of creative endeavour.

After the First Death draws on the experience of those who have faced death on the battlefield, and on others who have sought to put into words the complex philosophical, political and emotional responses that military action demands. Including poetry, extracts from fiction, memoirs, letters and biography, the book moves from World War One via the ideological battleground of the 1930s into the Second World War, then through the Cold War, Vietnam, the Falklands and the Gulf wars.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Crossing Over (Seren, 2007)

Tony Curtis’ wide-ranging interests in visual art, the impact of war and the nature of friendship coalesce in his latest collection, Crossing Over. A number of the poems take their inspiration from great artists, from early religious icons to expressionist canvasses, from a ‘buttery girl’ in a Flemish Landscape to the chainsaw sculptures of David Nash. There are also a series of sumptuous poems about travelling, including ‘Postcards from Tuscany’ where the lush beauty of the landscape contrasts with the poet’s mood, saddened by the death of a friend. There are several poems about America, from Yosemite on the West Coast to Jones Beach on the Eastern seaboard. The sonnet about his granddaughter opens this varied and striking collection, which shows the work of a poet writing with power, honesty and sensitivity.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered:
1. Read and discuss own work
2. Creative writing workshops and talks
3. Welsh literature in English
4. The poetry of (a) Seamus Heaney (b) Dannie Abse
5. INSET for teachers in poetry and creative writing

AGE RANGE: 9 - adults for reading own work and creative writing classes. 16- post-graduate for lectures. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Likes to receive students’ work before workshop visits. WILL ONLY ATTEND NON-SMOKING VENUES.

The portrait of Tony featured here is by painter Lorraine Bewsey. It forms part of a twenty-piece collection entitled Portraits of Welsh Writers. Lorraine can be contacted at lorraine@lorrainesartstudio.co.uk