Ian Parks

Ian Parks is a British poet, known for his love poetry.

Described by Chiron Review as 'the finest love poet of his generation', Parks was born in 1959 in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. The son of a miner, Parks grew up during the declining years of the industry - something which was to have a profound effect on his later work. His first collection of poems, Gargoyles in Winter was published in 1986, the same year in which he received a Yorkshire Arts Award. From 1986 to 1988 he was writer-in-residence at North Riding College, Scarborough. He was made a Hawthornden Fellow in 1991 and was awarded a Travelling Fellowship to the USA in 1994, spending most of his year in New England. He did research into Chartist poetry in Oxford and was one of the Poetry Society New Poets in 1996. His anthology, The Voice of the People: Chartist Poetry 1838-1848 is forthcoming from Flux Gallery Press.

His collections include A Climb Through Altered Landscapes (Blackwater, 1998), Shell Island (Waywiser, 2006), The Cage (Flux Gallery Press, 2008), Love Poems 1979-2009 (Flux Gallery Press, 2009) The Landing Stage (Lapwing, Belfast, 2010). and The Exile's House (Waterloo, 2012).

He has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Leeds. His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Observer, The Liberal, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Independent on Sunday, Poetry (Chicago), London Magazine, The Chiron Review, The Rialto, Stand, Acumen, Poetry Greece, Modern Poetry in Translation and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His pamphlet, A Paston Letter was published by Rack Press. A selection of his poems appears in Old City: New Rumours edited by Carol Rumens and Ian Gregson. He is the editor of Born into an Unquiet: T. F. Griffin at Sixty. Ian Parks was a 2012 writer in residence at Gladstone's Library and is currently the RLF Writing Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester. His anthology "Versions of the North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry" - the first in thirty years - is published by Five Leaves Publicatications. His versions of the modern Greek poet Constantine Cavafy - "The Cavafy Variations" (Rack Press) was published in 2013 and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. A pamphlet, ″Since" is published by Melos Press and a full collection ″Citizens″ is due from Smokestack Books. ″If Possible: Fifty Cavafy Poems" will be published by Arc in 2016.

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