Geraldine Monk (born 1952) is a British
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
. She was born in
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
. Since the late 1970s, she has published many collections of poetry and has recorded her poetry in collaboration with musicians. Monk's poetry has been published in many
anthologies
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...
, most recently appearing in the ''Anthology of 20th Century British and Irish Poetry''.
Life
Monk was born into a working-class family and raised as a Roman Catholic, something she believes has had an important effect on her work.
[- West House Books website - Geraldine monk, a mini-biography](_blank)
/ref> She was, she said, "Brought up with a parallel world of saints, angels, martyrs, the Holy Ghost
Most Christian denominations believe the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, to be the third divine Person of the Trinity, a triune god manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each being God. Nontrinitarian Christians, who ...
and the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
. No wonder I was so easily spooked. The ‘other world’ was a reality from birth." She left Lancashire at the age of 18, and moved to Leeds. In 1974 she moved to Staithes
Staithes () is a village in North Yorkshire, England, situated by the border between the unitary authorities of North Yorkshire and Redcar and Cleveland. The area located on the Redcar and Cleveland side is known as Cowbar. Formerly a hub for f ...
, Yorkshire and began to write. The British Electronic Poetry Centre's entry for Geraldine Monk says: "1967 escaped school. 1969 escaped factories. 1974 escaped Leeds. Moved to Staithes, North Yorkshire for 10 years of 'splendid isolation', some very odd jobs and increasing preoccupation with reading and writing poetry." In 1984 Monk moved to Sheffield, where she has lived ever since. Monk was married to the English artist and poet Alan Halsey
Alan Halsey (22 September 1949 – October 2022) was a British poet. He managed The Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye from 1979 to 1997. From 1997, Halsey lived in Sheffield, working as a specialist bookseller and publishing West House Books.
Halsey ...
. Monk and Halsey were, between them, proprietors of West House Books which has published and promoted a number of Monk's collections, as well as publishing the work of many other contemporary poets. Halsey has also provided visual art and book designs for several of Monk's books. Monk gained a B.A. in English Studies
English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a dis ...
from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1988, and between 1992 and 1995 was Visiting lecturer in Creative Writing & Communication Studies at Chesterfield College
Chesterfield College is a further and higher education college in the town of Chesterfield in North East Derbyshire, England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on th ...
. Between 1992 and 1999 she was Creative Writer at St. Luke's Hospice.
Poetry
Monk's first pamphlet appeared in 1974, self-published under the imprint of Siren Press. From the mid-seventies onwards, her work was published by various small publishers, including Bob Cobbing
Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival.
Early life
Cobbing was born in Enfield. He attended Enfield Grammar School and ...
's Writers Forum
Writers Forum is a small publisher, workshop and writers' network established by Bob Cobbing. The roots of Writers Forum were in the 1954 arts organisation Group H, and the ''And'' magazine that Cobbing edited. The writers' branch of Group H was ca ...
, and Peter Hodgkiss's Galloping Dog Press. From the start, and throughout her career, the importance of performance, and the sound of the spoken word has been a major part of Monk's poetry. She is regarded as an innovative, or experimental, poet. Her work incorporates song, found text, and material drawn from such sources as childhood games In 1994 she published the long poem "Interregnum", which is an account of the hanging of the Pendle witches
The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged ...
in 1612. "Interregnum" includes themes of landscape,[[Harriet Tarlo 'Home-Hills: Place, Nature and Landscape in the Poetry of Geraldine Monk ' in the Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk (Salt, 2003). ] the relationship between the animal and human worlds,[ and patriarchal domination.][ The poem is seen as being in the tradition of political radicalism. Monk's most recent works, such as "Escafeld Hangings", continue one of her themes of women in history, focussing in that case, on Mary Queen of Scots. Monk has increasingly collaborated with musicians in her performances and recordings.
Monk's pamphlet publications, or publications in other media, are often brought together into larger books, such as ''Noctivagations'' (2001), a selected volume of work written since the mid-1990s.][Stride Magazine - SUBSTANTIAL THOUGHTS: Review of 'Noctivagations' by Scott Thurston](_blank)
/ref> For example, ''Noctivagations'' includes the sequence "Songings" (the subject of Monk’s collaboration with Martin Archer). This piece, according to Scott Thurston 'resonates with lyric moments of visionary power'. The volume 'Lobe Scarps & Finials', published in 2011 by Leafe Press is similarly a gathering of work published during the preceding period. This collection has been described as containing "oppositions: between the individualism of lyric utterance and the political context in which it takes place; between the opacity produced by her densely patterned sounds ... and a plain-spoken brusqueness". In 2003, Salt Publishing
Salt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched ''Salt Magazine'' in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry ...
brought out Monk's ''Selected Poems'', and in 2007 also published ''The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk'', a book of critical works on her poetry.
Bibliography
*''Scarlet Opening'' (Siren Press, 1974)
*''Invasion'' (Siren Press, 1976)
*''Long Wake'' (London Writers' Forum/Pirate Press, 1979)
*''Rotations'' (Siren Press, 1979)
*''Banquet'' (Siren Press, 1980)
*''Spreading the Cards'' (Siren Press, 1980)
*''La Quinta del Sordo'' (Writers' Forum, 1980)
*''Tiger Lilies'' (Rivelin Press, 1982)
*''Animal Crackers'' (Writers Forum, 1984)
*''Herein Lie Tales of Two Inner Cities'' (Writers' Forum, 1986)
*''Sky Scrapers'' (Galloping Dog Press, 1985)
*''Quadraversals'' (Writers' Forum, 1990)
*''Walks in a Daisy Chain'' (Magenta, 1991)
*''The Sway of Precious Demons: Selected Poems'' (North and South, 1992)
*''Interregnum'' (Creation Books, 1994)
*''Dream Drover'' (Siren Press, 1999)
*''Trilogy'' (Gargoyle Editions, 2000)
*''Noctivagations'' (West House Books, 2001)
*''Insubstantial Thoughts on the Transubstantiation of the Text'' (West House Books/The Paper, 2002)
*''Marian Hangings'' (Gargoyle Editions, 2002)
*''Mary Through The Looking Glass'' (Gargoyle Editions, 2002)
*''Absent Friends'' (Gargoyle Editions, 2002)
*''Selected Poems'' (Salt Publishing, 2003)
*''She Kept Birds'' (Slack Buddha Press, 2004)
*''A Nocturnall Upon S. Lucies Day Being The Shortest Day'' (Gargoyle Editions, 2004)
*''Escafeld Hangings'' (West House Books, 2005)
*''Ghost & Other Sonnets'' (Salt Publishing, 2008)
*''Lobe Scarps & Finials'' (Leafe Press, 2011)
* ''Pendle Witch-Words'' (Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 2012)
* CUSP: Recollections of Poetry in Transition, ed. Geraldine Monk, (Shearsman Books 2012)
* ''THEY WHO SAW THE DEEP'' (Parlor Press, 2016)
Monk also provided voice & words for the album ''Fluvium'', collaborating with Martin Archer and Julie Tippetts
Julie Driscoll Tippett (born 8 June 1947) is an English singer and actress, known for her work with Brian Auger and her husband, Keith Tippett.
Career
Driscoll is known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's " This Wheel's on F ...
, released by Discus Music.
References
External links
Geraldine Monk maps her poetry with where she has lived
* ttp://www.westhousebooks.co.uk/ West House Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monk, Geraldine
1952 births
Living people
English women poets
Writers from Blackburn
20th-century English poets
21st-century English poets
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English women writers