Prizes, performances, residences, reviews
Pandemic Poems: How I wrote about Covid
That's me, above on the left, with Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals chief Martin Barkley on the right
In 2021 I was Poet in Residence in Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals.
Back in 2019, I had treatment for prostate cancer. As a gesture of thanks to the oncology nurses, I sent them a poem about Pinderfields Hospital, which I had written when I was Poet in Residence there in 2006, when the hospital was being rebuilt and there were big changes afoot.
As a result of that, Mid-Yorkshire hired me to write a new series of poems about the fight against Covid. I travelled round the hospitals – Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury – and a therapy outpost in Castleford. I talked to about 50 people – doctors, nurses, therapists etc – and produced The Healing Season, ten poems which are now displayed on the hospitals’ website and social media accounts and which will eventually be hung up to decorate their walls. If you go to
https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/news/fighting-the-pandemic-with-poetry-1985
you can read the news story, then click on to the link below it, which allows you to read the poems.
Back in 2019, I had treatment for prostate cancer. As a gesture of thanks to the oncology nurses, I sent them a poem about Pinderfields Hospital, which I had written when I was Poet in Residence there in 2006, when the hospital was being rebuilt and there were big changes afoot.
As a result of that, Mid-Yorkshire hired me to write a new series of poems about the fight against Covid. I travelled round the hospitals – Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury – and a therapy outpost in Castleford. I talked to about 50 people – doctors, nurses, therapists etc – and produced The Healing Season, ten poems which are now displayed on the hospitals’ website and social media accounts and which will eventually be hung up to decorate their walls. If you go to
https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/news/fighting-the-pandemic-with-poetry-1985
you can read the news story, then click on to the link below it, which allows you to read the poems.
Play awards and festivals
2013: The Bronte Boy: New production commissioned for The Bronte Society International AGM Weekend at Haworth
2012: Sunday Afternoon Again performed at Liverpool's Write Now Drama Festival
2011: Write Now judges' verdict on play Luvvies: “This dramatic exploration of emotional and psychological mind games between two couples is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets Abigail’s Party. The punchy, bitchy dialogue is great fun with an undercurrent of tragedy that forever threatens to break the surface.”
2011: The Bronte Boy performed at Wakefield Drama Festival
2010: Bradford Writer in Residence in City of Film Year, teaching film skills to school students
2009: Sheffield One-Act Play Festival: Stanley Arnold Trophy for Life Sentence
1997: "A move away from the author's quirky comedies of the past, the show features some of his blackest touches of humour but is set to be an emotional tour de force" - Wakefield Express on The Navigator's Daughter
2012: Sunday Afternoon Again performed at Liverpool's Write Now Drama Festival
2011: Write Now judges' verdict on play Luvvies: “This dramatic exploration of emotional and psychological mind games between two couples is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets Abigail’s Party. The punchy, bitchy dialogue is great fun with an undercurrent of tragedy that forever threatens to break the surface.”
2011: The Bronte Boy performed at Wakefield Drama Festival
2010: Bradford Writer in Residence in City of Film Year, teaching film skills to school students
2009: Sheffield One-Act Play Festival: Stanley Arnold Trophy for Life Sentence
1997: "A move away from the author's quirky comedies of the past, the show features some of his blackest touches of humour but is set to be an emotional tour de force" - Wakefield Express on The Navigator's Daughter
Short Story awards and commissions
2012: Prizewinner, Writers & Artists Competition for Ghosted. “This story uses clever wit and irony to write amusingly about writers' competitiveness. It is a play on the word 'ghosted' - a ghost-written book, written by an author channeling his rival: a ghost, using the techniques and language of the ghost writer. I enjoyed the world portrayed and appreciated the amount of research and understanding demonstrated by the author.” – judge Roshi Fernando
2008: Prizewinner, Words in the Wolds Festival for Street Theatre, published in Festival's Anthology.
1998: Organised Featherstone Short Story Competition and co-edited (with Joan Thornton) Arctic Night, an anthology of stories entered
1995: Prizewinner, Armagh Writers' Short Story Competition for Whose Son Is It Anyway?
2008: Prizewinner, Words in the Wolds Festival for Street Theatre, published in Festival's Anthology.
1998: Organised Featherstone Short Story Competition and co-edited (with Joan Thornton) Arctic Night, an anthology of stories entered
1995: Prizewinner, Armagh Writers' Short Story Competition for Whose Son Is It Anyway?
Poetry awards and residences
2009: Life Class poetry collection. "A poet of the everyday world, he is consistently good" - Brian Patten
"I like the humanity... the way his poems seem to be full of real people feeling real emotions" - Ian McMillan
"He has an ear for popular diction reminiscent of Alan Bennett. His eye for comic fiction reminds me of Roger McGough" - Jim Greenhalf, Bradford Telegraph & Argus
2006: Writer in Residence, Wakefield Hospitals, to write poems about the work of Pinderfields Hospital
2003: Member of the Cathedral Poets, based at Wakefield Cathedral
2000: Poet in Residence in Whitby, organised by North Yorkshire Libraries. Produced booklet Poetry in Motion.
Published poetry collection Trust Me, I'm a Poet
1998: Co-founder (with poet Roger Manns) of Wakefield's Black Horse Poets workshops. (Black Horse Poets celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2023.)
"I like the humanity... the way his poems seem to be full of real people feeling real emotions" - Ian McMillan
"He has an ear for popular diction reminiscent of Alan Bennett. His eye for comic fiction reminds me of Roger McGough" - Jim Greenhalf, Bradford Telegraph & Argus
2006: Writer in Residence, Wakefield Hospitals, to write poems about the work of Pinderfields Hospital
2003: Member of the Cathedral Poets, based at Wakefield Cathedral
2000: Poet in Residence in Whitby, organised by North Yorkshire Libraries. Produced booklet Poetry in Motion.
Published poetry collection Trust Me, I'm a Poet
1998: Co-founder (with poet Roger Manns) of Wakefield's Black Horse Poets workshops. (Black Horse Poets celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2023.)
Newspaper awards
1989: UK Press Gazette Regional Press Award as part of team covering Liverpool spectators' deaths at Hillsborough (The Star, Sheffield)
1985: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors: Journalists and Broadcasters National Award for feature article on Derbyshire Peak Park (The Star, Sheffield)
1985: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors: Journalists and Broadcasters National Award for feature article on Derbyshire Peak Park (The Star, Sheffield)