Michael Symmons Roberts’s Followers (20)

Michael Symmons Roberts

Born

Preston, Lancashire, England

Website

http://www.symmonsroberts.com

Genre

Poetry, Nonfiction

Influences

Alan Berger, Richard Mabey ...more

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Michael was born in 1963 and spent his childhood in Lancashire, England before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early ‘70’s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Oxford University to read Philosophy & Theology.

After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.

His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Elio Michael was born in 1963 and spent his childhood in Lancashire, England before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early ‘70’s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Oxford University to read Philosophy & Theology.

After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion & Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.

His 4th book of poetry – Corpus – was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin International Prize. His 6th collection - Drysalter - was the winner of the 2013 Forward Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

He has previously received the Society of Authors’ Gregory Award for British poets under 30, the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award.

His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and operas for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera. Their WNO commission - The Sacrifice - won the RPS Award for Opera in 2008, and their Royal Opera House / Scottish Opera commission - Clemency - was nominated for an Olivier Award.

His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry - for Radio 4 - which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel – Patrick’s Alphabet – was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second – Breath – in 2008. He is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts.

He is married with three sons, and lives near Manchester. (source: http://www.symmonsroberts.com/about_l...) ...more

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Michael Symmons Roberts’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 1,002 ratings · 161 reviews · 24 distinct works • Similar authors

	Drysalter 3.82 avg rating — 122 ratings — published 2013 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Deaths of the Poets by Michael Symmons Roberts, Paul Farley 3.93 avg rating — 107 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Corpus 4.25 avg rating — 63 ratings — published 2004 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mancunia 3.93 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Breath 3.65 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Half-Healed 4.31 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ransom 3.88 avg rating — 17 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Patrick's Alphabet 2.85 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2006 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Soft keys 4.50 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2009 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sleeper by Michael Symmons Roberts, Stephen Deazley (composter) 2.78 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Michael Symmons Roberts…

Quotes by Michael Symmons Roberts (?)

“Grounded"

I

At the edge of sleep.
my head on your breast.
I hear your heart lock
with the cloth pulse

of a skein of geese.
which arrows over roofs
towards the source
of water, dreams, oblivion.

II

Asleep on your front,
your shoulder-blades reveal
themselves as wing-stumps.

Now I know what you
have given up for me,
for this November night,

this moonlit bed.
this sluicing rain
these distant fireworks.

And I think of migrants
on the wing for weeks,
filleting the air with sleep.

Ill

Today huge tethered kites
— torsos, mermaids, lizards, bears—
were animated by sea air,
as though the next world hung
above us like a mezzanine.

Tonight I lie awake and run
your absence through my fingers:
here's the touch of you,
your warmth and give.
our conspiracy of flightlessress.

Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus. (Jonathan Cape / Random House; New edition July 20, 2004)”
― Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus

1 likes

“Tonight I lie awake and run
your absence through my fingers:
here’s the touch of you,
your warmth and give,
our conspiracy of flightlessness.

from “Grounded”
― Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus

0 likes

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