Lawrence Sail (born 29 October 1942) is a contemporary British poet and writer. His poems are known for their "scrupulous combination of close observation and broader reflections"; He is published by

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

. Sail's poetry collections include ''Eye-Baby'' (2006); ''The World Returning'' (2002), ''Building into Air'' (1995), and ''Out of Land: New and Selected Poems'' (1992). He has edited several prominent anthologies, including ''The New Exeter Book of Riddles'' (1999) with

Kevin Crossley-Holland Kevin John William Crossley-Holland (born 7 February 1941) is an English translator, children's author and poet. His best known work is probably the #Arthur trilogy, Arthur trilogy (2000–2003), for which he won the Guardian Children's Fiction ...

, and ''First and Always: Poems for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital'' (1988). Other works include his childhood memoir ''Cross-currents: essays'' (Enitharmon, 2005), ''Sift'' (Impress Books, 2010), and ''Songs of the Darkness'' which combines Sail's Christmas poems with his daughter's illustrations (Enitharmon, 2010).

Biography

Sail was born in London and brought up in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

. He studied French and German at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and subsequently taught for some years in Kenya, before returning to the UK, where he taught at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent co-educational boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school in the English Public School (United Kingdom), public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon, T ...

and, later,

Exeter School Exeter School is a private co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. The younger year groups are based at Exeter Pre-Prep School in Exminster, which was previously known as The New School. In 20 ...

(where the modern languages department was headed by

Harry Guest Harry Guest (born Henry Bayly Guest; 6 October 1932 – 20 March 2021) was a British poet born in Wales. Life and career Harry Guest was educated at Malvern College and read Modern Languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He wrote a thesis on Ma ...

, another published poet). He is now a freelance writer. He also edited South-West Review from 1980 to 1985. Sail works in schools and colleges, and has also written a radio play, as well as short features for radio. He has presented the

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

programme 'Poetry Now' and 'Time for Verse' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. He was chairman of the

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, and Patricia Cumper is ...

from 1990 to 1994, has directed the

Cheltenham Literature Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for th ...

, was the UK jury member for the European Literature Prize (1994–96), has been a judge for the

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in United Kingdom, UK and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first ...

and is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

Bibliography

*''Opposite Views'' Dent, 1974 *''The Drowned River'' Mandeville Press, 1978 *''The Kingdom of Atlas'' Secker & Warburg, 1980 *''South-West Review: A Celebration'' (editor) South West Arts, 1985 *''Devotions'' Secker & Warburg, 1987 *''Aquamarine'' The Gruffyground Press, 1988 *''First and Always: Poems for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital'' (compiler and editor) Faber and Faber, 1988 *''Water'' (Poem Poster) (wood-engraving by Hellmuth Weissenborn) Friends of Cheltenham Literature Festival, 1989 *''Air'' (Poem Poster) (wood-engraving by John O'Connor) Friends of Cheltenham Literature Festival, 1990 *''Fire'' (Poem Poster) (wood-engraving by Gwenda Morgan) Friends of Cheltenham Literature Festival, 1991 *''Earth'' (Poem Poster) (wood-engraving by Miriam MacGregor) Friends of Cheltenham Literature Festival, 1992 *''Out of Land: New and Selected Poems''

, 1992 *''Building into Air''

, 1995 *''The New Exeter Book of Riddles'' (edited with Kevin Crossley-Holland; illustrated by Simon Drew) Enitharmon, 1999 *''The World Returning''

, 2002 *''Cross-currents'' (essays) Enitharmon, 2005 *''Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems'' (edited with Kevin Crossley-Holland; illustrated by John Lawrence) Enitharmon, 2005 *''Eye-Baby''

, 2006 *''Waking Dreams: New & Selected Poems''

, 2010

Prizes and awards

*1992 Hawthornden Fellowship *1993 Arts Council Writers' Award *2004

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

References

*Extracted fro
The Open LibraryLawrence Sail
at Contemporary Writers 1942 births Writers from Exeter Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people English male poets {{England-poet-stub