Tony Roberts (born 1949) is a contemporary English poet and critic.

Biography

Roberts was born in Doncaster. He was educated at the then Didsbury College and, on a Drapers’ Company of London Scholarship, at

The College of William and Mary ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, where he completed an M.A. in literature. After teaching in

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

he returned to Manchester and taught in Bolton schools for over thirty years, before taking early retirement to focus on his writing. Roberts's poetry has appeared in a wide variety of magazines, including '

Agenda Agenda (: agendum) may refer to: Information management * Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list * Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group * Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal informatio ...

', ‘Encounter’, ' P.N.Review', ‘

Poetry Review ''The Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Wayne Holloway-Smith. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Mo ...

’, ‘

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

’, ‘Stand’ and ‘

The Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes ficti ...

’. A poem from his ''Drawndark'' collection appeared as the Saturday poem in ‘

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

’ in 2015. Other poems of his have won prizes in poetry competitions over the years and his work appeared in the anthologies ''Accompanied Voices'' (2015), and ''Strike Up The Band '' (2017).

Al Alvarez Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez. Background Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a ...

has described Roberts's poetry as having ‘an authentic adult voice, tender, ironic, relaxed and highly educated’. Reviewing ''Drawndark'' in '

The Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History '' ...

' (Summer 2016),

Michael Mott Michael Charles Alston Mott (8 December 1930 – 11 October 2019) was a British-born American author. He produced eleven poetry collections, four novels and a renowned biography of Thomas Merton. Life and career Mott was born in London in Decem ...

wrote of Roberts's 'important collection': 'The "nightly little ceremonies" of the title poem are delightful. So are the other domestic celebrations of the collection...Those who have discovered Tony Roberts's "Noir Americain" will be glad to learn that he appears in three episodes...Each is carried off with great skill, courage, and panache, and the last is very funny.' Award-winning American poet Michael Waters wrote of ''The Noir American & Other Poems'': ‘Muscular, allusive, clever, cinematic, and richly musical…these poems capture jazz life as well as anyone could.’ Roberts's critical prose appears regularly in such magazines as ‘ P. N. Review’, ‘Agenda’, ‘

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and poetry. A number of Nobel Laureates, including Annie Ernaux, Albert Camus, Doris Les ...

’, ‘

New Walk ''New Walk'' was a high quality poetry and arts print magazine published at Leicester University, Leicester, England, but with a national and international focus. The magazine was established in 2010 and closed in 2017. It was edited by Rory Wa ...

’, ‘Stand’ and ‘The Warwick Review’. He is particularly interested in American subjects. John Forth wrote of the method in Roberts's essay collection, ''The Taste in My Mind'', ‘a detailed map of the age is condensed to appear as table-talk. You invite him to dinner and his friends talk easily into the night after everyone else has gone.’ Roberts has also edited a selection of essays to celebrate 20 years of Shoestring Press, ''Poetry in the Blood''.

Bibliography

Poetry

* * ''Flowers of the Hudson Bay'' (Peterloo Poets, 1991) * ''Sitters'' (Arc Publications, 2002) * ''Outsiders'' (Shoestring Press, 2010) * ''Drawndark'' (Shoestring Press, 2014) * ''The Noir American & Other Poems'' (Shoestring Press, 2018)

Non fiction

* ''Poetry in the Blood'' (Shoestring Press, 2014) * ''The Taste in My Mind: Essays & Reviews'' (Shoestring Press, 2015) * ''The Taste of My Mornings: Essays on Poets, Critics & America '' (Shoestring Press, 2019) * ''A Movement of Mind: Essays on Poets, Critics & Biographers '' (Shoestring Press, 2024)

References

* ''Accompanied Voices: Poets on Composers from Thomas Tallis to Arvo Pärt'', edited by John Greening (Boydell Press, 2015) * ''Anarchists, Beats and Dadaists'' by Jim Burns (Penniless Press Publications, 2016), includes an essay review on ''The Taste in My Mind'' * ''Robert Lowell in Context'', edited by Thomas Austenfeld and Grzegorz Kość (Cambridge University Press, 2024), includes an essay by Roberts
''The Saturday Poem: Poem to a Friend Feeling Out of His Element''
* ''The Shandean'' - Vol. 32 November, 2021: Fourteen Sterne Poems
''The reviewer reviewed … John Forth considers a collection of essays on poets and poetry by Tony Roberts''

''Tony Roberts - Literature Northwest''

''Tony Roberts - Chorlton Book Festival, 2019''
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