Author: Anthony Wilson

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, is available now from Blue Diode Publishing. My current research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

On writing and illness

Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More

Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

Murdering my darling

I have murdered my darling. Like a bird of a certain blue vintage, it is ex, dead, kaput, finished. The … More

Another look at Lux’s ‘An Horatian Notion’

One of my personal, private highlights of last year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival was a Sunday morning breakfast hosted by The … More

After Paris

I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More

Lifesaving Poems: Ellen Doré Watson’s ‘Be Here First’

Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … More

Finding Sharon Olds’s The Matter of This World

The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987) I found The Matter of … More

Making Poetry Happen

Announcing the publication of Making Poetry Happen: Transforming the Poetry Classroom (Bloomsbury, 2015). Making Poetry Happen provides a valuable resource … More

Influences: my first reader

My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … More

Lifesaving Poems: Chrissy Williams’s ‘The Burning of the Houses’

The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More

Cut through

Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More

New Year letter

Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … More

Poetry highlights of 2014

I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

The most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

Standing up to cancer?

I am not completely stupid. I know celebrity culture is here to stay. As my children frequently remind me, ‘It … More

Why we need Aldeburgh

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

Truce

Here is my Christmas poem for 2014. In this anniversary year of the First World War, it commemorates the unofficial … More

Going Against the Flow: Ted Wragg’s last interview

I have been thinking a lot this week about the late Ted Wragg. When I joined the University of Exeter … More