Barry MacSweeney

Barry MacSweeney (July 17, 1948 – May 9, 2000) was an English poet and journalist.

Barry MacSweeney was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He worked as a professional journalist throughout most of his life. He met poet Basil Bunting when they were both working at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle in the mid-1960s, and formed part of a local group of poets including Tom Pickard, Jon Silkin and Jeremy Prynne. He taught journalism and tutored in creative writing in the 1970s and worked as voluntary tutor in adult literacy in Newcastle in the late 1980s. Alcoholism, which he struggled with "from the age of sixteen" and related ill health led to his death in May 2000. In the last 9 months of his life he acted as a mentor and editor to West Cumbrian poet, Emma McGordon and relaunched his Blacksuede Boot Press to publish her first pamphlet collection The Hangman & The Stars, just two weeks before his death. Correspondence between the two is held by Newcastle University's Barry MacSweeney Archive .

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