Michael Ogilvie Imlah (26 September 1956 – 12 January 2009), better known as Mick Imlah, was a Scottish poet and editor.

Background

Imlah was brought up in Milngavie near

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, before moving to Beckenham,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, in 1966. He was educated at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, where he subsequently taught as a Junior Fellow. He helped revive the historic '' Oxford Poetry'' before editing '' Poetry Review'' from 1983–6, and then worked at the '' Times Literary Supplement'' from 1992. His collection ''The Lost Leader'' (2008) won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, and was shortlisted for the 2009 International Griffin Poetry Prize. Imlah died in January 2009, aged 52, as a result of motor neurone disease. He was diagnosed with this disease in December 2007. An issue of ''Oxford Poetry'' was dedicated to his memory. Alan Hollinghurst dedicated his 2011 novel '' The Stranger's Child'' to Imlah's memory; the final section of the novel has the epigraph 'No one remembers you at all' from Imlah's poem 'In Memoriam Alfred Lord Tennyson'. A selection of Imlah's poetry, edited by Mark Ford and with an introduction by Alan Hollinghurst, was published by Faber and Faber in 2010. A selection of his prose appeared in 2015.

Bibliography

As author

* ''The Zoologist’s Bath'' (Oxford: Sycamore Press, 1982), 15 pages, * ''Birthmarks'', the first full book of his poetry (Chatto & Windus, 1988), 56 pages, * ''Penguin New Poets 3: Glyn Maxwell, Mick Imlah, Peter Reading'' (1994), * ''Diehard'', booklet ( Clutag Press, 2006) * ''The Lost Leader'', the second full book of his poetry before his death (

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

, 2008),

As editor

* ''Dr. Wortle's School'' by

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

(Imlah wrote the introduction and notes; Penguin Classics, 1999), * ''The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse'' (with Robert Crawford), 2000), * ''A Century of Poems'' (with Alan Jenkins), Times Supplements Ltd, 2002), 136 pp, * ''The TLS On Shakespeare'' (The Times, 2003), 178 pp, * ''Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Poems Selected by Mick Imlah'' (

, 2004), * '' Edwin Muir Selected Poems'' (

, 2008),

Posthumous

* ''Mick Imlah: Selected Poems'' Edited by Mark Ford and introduced by Alan Hollinghurst (

, 2010), * ''Mick Imlah: Selected Prose'' Edited by André Naffis-Sahely and Robert Selby ( Peter Lang, 2015),

References

External links

Imlah profile at the Poetry Archive

"Mick Imlah: the lost talent" 27 November 2010. ''Guardian''

Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including video clip of reading of Imlah poem"Mick Imlah 1956–2009"
a collection of poems by Imlah, reviews of his books and his own essays fro
TLS
January 12, 2009
Late poet's Griffin nomination delights loved ones
{{DEFAULTSORT:Imlah, Mick Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Scottish magazine editors Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United Kingdom 1956 births 2009 deaths People from Milngavie 20th-century Scottish poets Scottish male poets 20th-century Scottish male writers