Paul Farley

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

(born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster.

Life and work

Farley was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He studied painting at the

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, produ ...

, and has lived in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

. His first collection of poetry, ''The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You'' (1998) won a

Forward Poetry Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

(Best First Collection) in 1998, and was shortlisted 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 ...

. The book also gained him the

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to ...

, and in 1999 he won the

Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award The ''Sunday Times'' Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award is a literary prize awarded to a British author under the age of 35 for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. It is administered by the Society of Authors and has ...

. From 2000 to 2002, he was the poet-in-residence at the

Wordsworth Trust The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordswor ...

in Grasmere. His second collection, ''The Ice Age'' (2002), received the

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

. In 2004, Farley was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's

Next Generation poets Next Generation poets (2014) are a list of poets named in 2014 by a panel for the Poetry Book Society, which once every ten years selects 20 poets "expected to dominate the poetry landscape of the coming decade." The accolade highlights emerging poe ...

His third collection, ''Tramp in Flames''(2006), was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, a poem from which, ‘Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second’, was awarded the

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for Best Individual Poem.Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second by Paul Farley
. ''The Guardian''. 1 August 2005. The same year he also published a study of

Terence Davies Terence Davies (10 November 1945 – 7 October 2023) was a British screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films, including '' Distant Voices, Still Lives'' (1988), '' The Long ...

' film, ''

Distant Voices, Still Lives ''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' is a 1988 British period drama film written and directed by Terence Davies. It evokes working-class family life in Liverpool during the 1940s and early 1950s, paying particular attention to the role of popular mu ...

''. In 2007, he edited a selection of

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and his sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20t ...

for Faber's ''Poet to Poet'' series. As a broadcaster he has made many arts, features and documentary programmes for radio and television, as well as original radio dramas, and his poems for radio are collected in ''Field Recordings:BBC Poems 1998-2008''. He makes regular appearances 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 ...

’s '' Saturday Review'', '' Front Row'' and

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 ...

's ''The Verb'', and he presented the contemporary poetry programme ''The Echo Chamber'' on Radio 4 from 2012 to 2018. His book, ''Edgelands'', a non-fiction journey into England's overlooked wilderness (co-authored with

Michael Symmons Roberts Michael Symmons Roberts FRSL (born 1963) is a British poet. He has published eight collections of poetry, all with Cape (Random House), and has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, as well as major p ...

) was published by Jonathan Cape in 2011; it received 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 ...

’s

Jerwood Award The Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction were financial awards made to assist new writers of non-fiction to carry out new research, and/or to devote more time to writing. The awards were administrated by the Royal Society of ...

, the Foyles Best Book of Ideas Award 2012 and was serialised as a BBC Radio 4 ''

Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a long-running BBC Radio 4 series, first broadcast in 1998. It features daily readings from an abridged version of a selected book read over five or occasionally ten weekday episodes. Each episode is approximately 15 min ...

''. His fourth collection ''The Dark Film'', was a

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

Choice in 2012. In 2009, he received the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the

in 2012. He currently lives in

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 ...

and is Professor of Poetry at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

. His fifth collection ''The Mizzy'' was shortlisted for the 2019 Costa Poetry Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019.

Awards

*1996 ''Observer''Arvon International Poetry Competition *1998 Geoffrey Dearmer Award *1998

for Best First Collection, ''The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You'' *1999

*1999

*2000 Arts Council Writer's Award *2002

, ''The Ice Age'' *2005

for Best Single Poem, "Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second" *2007 Griffin International Poetry Prize, shortlist, ''Tramp in Flames'' *2009 Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction, ''Edgelands'' *2009 E. M. Forster Award (American Academy of Arts & Letters) *2009 Travelling Scholarship of the Society of Authors *2012 Foyles Best Book of Ideas, ''Edgelands'' *2012

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

*2013 Cholmondeley Award of the Society of Authors *2019 T. S. Eliot Prize, shortlist, ''The Mizzy'' *2019 Costa Poetry Award, shortlist, ''The Mizzy''

Works

Bibliography

*''The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You'' (London:

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bull ...

, 1998) *''The Ice Age'' (London: Picador, 2002) *''Distant Voices, Still Lives'' (London: British Film Institute, 2006) (about the film of the same name by Terence Davies) *''Tramp in Flames'' (London: Picador, 2006) *''Field Recordings: BBC Poems (1998-2008)'' (London: Donut Press,Donut Press
/ref> 2009) *''The Atlantic Tunnel: Selected Poems'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010) *''Edgelands: Journeys into England's True Wilderness'' (with

) (London:

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

, 2011) *''The Dark Film'' (London: Picador, 2012) *''Selected Poems'' (London: Picador, 2014) *''Deaths of the Poets'' (with

) (London:

, 2017) *''The Mizzy'' (London: Picador, 2019) *Contributor to ''A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West'' ( Gingko Library, 2019). *Contributor to ''Refractive Pool: Contemporary Painting in Liverpool ''(contains ''The Studio'') (Refractive Pool, 2021). *''When It Rained for a Million Years'' (London: Picador, 2025) As Editor *''John Clare Selected Poems'' (London: Faber & Faber, 2010)

References

External links

British Council -- Contemporary Writers: Paul FarleyPoetry Archive--Profile, including audio clipsGriffin Poetry Prize biography, including video clipKeynote speech at the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize awards gala, including video clipsGranta 102: The New Nature WritingThe Guardian: In conversation: Mark Haddon and Paul Farley57 Productions: Interview57 Productions: Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a SecondIntelligent Life: InterviewThe Observer: Once upon a life
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Paul 1965 births Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people Poets from Liverpool Academics of Lancaster University 21st-century British poets 21st-century English male writers English male poets English-language haiku poets