Log in
Based on a common research interest in the collaborative poetic of the New York School, and a commitment to the public value of poetry, University of Kent poets have created a poetry scene of national and international significance. Together they founded the innovative poetry festival Sounds New Poetry, which led to the award-winning performance series Free Range. Sounds New Poetry's significance lies in its creation and intellectual enrichment of new audiences for poetry and its advancement of the creative practice of major musicians and poets through cross-media collaborations. Building on the achievement of Sounds New Poetry, the Arts Council-funded Wise Words enabled PGCE students to take contemporary poetry to `out of mainstream' groups. The programme extended the reach of the festival by changing pedagogy within regional PGCE practice and enriching the experience of users from a range of community education groups.
This case study describes the work of Professor Tony Lopez and its impact on the contemporary world of poetry and the creative and cultural economy. The impact has been on the general reading public, (who have recognised the importance of Lopez's works, on the writing community itself through Lopez's influence of creative practice, and on the publishers, editors, curators, arts festival programmers, and translators who work within the creative and cultural sectors of the economy. Publication, awards won, critical reception, and consultancy positions support the claim to impact.
This case study demonstrates how the research of Dr Michael Sanders on Chartist poetry has enhanced the public awareness of nineteenth-century working-class politics. Dr Sanders regularly communicates his research beyond academic audiences to reach a general public through his involvement in public lectures and musical, film, and heritage projects all aimed at expanding the understanding of poetry from the Chartist era. His work has had a direct impact on the presentation and preservation of the rare National Chartist Hymn Book, which was digitised as a result of his advisory role and made available to a whole new audience.
Through his practice-led research and active promotion of community-based poetry initiatives, the University of Reading's Peter Robinson has increased the availability of poetry at local, national and international levels. As a result of his work, poetry has been more prominently staged, explained and argued for in public forums, enhancing the cultural lives and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Economic impact has been achieved through Robinson's intervention in helping to secure the financial viability and boost the profile of a small publishing firm specialising in poetry, which in turn has improved the cultural life and self-esteem for the local community.
Diana Cullell's study of contemporary Spanish poetry (published 2010) has illuminated the relationship between the power of the State and new writing in democratising Spain, and has provided new ways of understanding poetic traditions. Her direct engagement with public events and poets since 2010 has enhanced that impact and is ongoing. Spanish readers, as well as audiences beyond Spain, have acquired new understanding of poetic practice and of tradition and the politics of culture. The poets themselves have found new readers while Cullell's critical anatomy of poetics has provided them with tools for reflecting on their own practices. Spanish cultural institutions have benefited as mediators for the dissemination of Cullell's insights.
Professor Leeder has made a major contribution to raising the levels of cultural awareness and understanding of modern German poetry in the UK and beyond. Her research has enabled the English-speaking public to discover poetry previously unknown to them and has brought emerging poetry into the public realm. It has revived interest in forgotten writers via public engagement, commissioning and translation of new work and through Leeder's advisory work with media and cultural institutions. Leeder has influenced the programming and presentation of German poetry, engaging new media to create new audiences. Her research and translation expertise has contributed both to changing how German poetry is translated and performed by others, and to how artists respond to it in their own work.
Building on the University of Surrey's long history of involvement in the post-war British poetry scene, Surrey's School of English and Languages conducts research into some of the key questions surrounding contemporary poetic practice.
This research underpins the School's commitment to championing and investigating the most recent and innovative wave of contemporary British poetry: the renewed focus on a Modernist aesthetic that characterizes much of twenty-first-century verse.
The School has established a series of public events to bring this challenging and rewarding body of work to a wider audience. These events have made a significant economic contribution through their promotion of the British poetry industry, and have had a marked cultural impact on public access to and understanding of avant-garde poetry in the county of Surrey and across southeast England.
Mediating the complex and rewarding pleasures of poetry to a wide audience is central to the Department of English at Queen Mary's impact on the public understanding of the medium. Poetry has very high status in conceptions of literary merit and ambition, and commands large public audiences; yet it is also seen as difficult to understand by that audience, especially in the case of contemporary poetry. At Queen Mary, research on poetry includes scholarly modes of close reading and explication, analysis of poetics, women's writing, and poetry's print culture. Drawing on this research, we have used diverse strategies to enhance public understanding of poetry, including broadcast and internet dissemination, publishing ventures, poetry readings, and public archiving of poetry recordings. This has extended to work with teachers on teaching modern poetry in schools, the location where most general readers first encounter poetry.
The term `linguistically innovative poetry' (LIP) encompasses a range of practices and approaches that has emerged in British poetry since the 1980s. Critical and practice-led research undertaken by Sheppard has made an important contribution to the development and vitality of communities of practice and appreciation in British alternative poetries. His work has helped readers and critics to identify, appreciate and engage with British poetry and particularly LIP. This case study is based on the critical and practice-led research projects into the potentialities of literary experiment carried out by Sheppard, work that is generally constellated around the widely-used term `linguistically innovative poetry', a term he has helped to disseminate in the critical domain and in the field of literary production.
The impact and benefit is registered through a change in literary critical perspectives regarding LIP, including the use of the term, in several cultural environments, and in a heightened sense of the potentialities for literary experiment in the field of literary production itself.
Professor Sir Andrew Motion works at the heart of the poetry sector in the UK and speaks for it at all levels of public discourse. His research into poetry through criticism and practice, and his tireless public engagement, lead to impacts on a wide range of users in cultural life and education, civil society, public discourses and public services. These are achieved through such positions as
Widespread benefits are felt through