The Judith E Wilson Centre for Poetics is a research centre in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, that seeks to develop new and original research into the practices of poetry. Cambridge has been a centre for the art of poetry, criticism of poetry and poetics for centuries and this new centre seeks to offer a new focus to the many ongoing forms of theory and practice active in Cambridge. In particular, the Centre seeks to foster new connections between the Judith E Wilson Visiting Poetry Fellow, the University and the wider community of Cambridge. The founding members and steering group of the Centre are Mina Gorji, Alex Houen, Rod Mengham, Drew Milne and Amy Morris.
On Thurs 25th April at 5.30pm in the Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, 9 West Rd, the Faculty of English launched its new “Centre for Poetry and Poetics” with a set of readings by Anne Boyer, Mina Gorji, Alex Houen, Rod Mengham, and Drew Milne.
ANNE BOYER is a poet and essayist from Kansas City. Her honours include the 2018 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, a 2018 Whiting Award in nonfiction and poetry, and the 2016 CLMP award for her book of poetry, Garments Against Women. Along with Cassandra Gillig, she is the translator of Grenade in Mouth: Some Poems of Miyo Vestrini, published in 2019 by Kenning Editions. Her memoir about cancer and care, The Undying, is forthcoming from Penguin UK in 2019. She is the 2018-2019 Judith E. Wilson poetry fellow and a visiting poetry fellow at Peterhouse.
MINA GORJI was born in Tehran, grew up in London and lives in Cambridge, where she is a Senior University Lecturer in English and Fellow of Pembroke College. She has published a study of John Clare’s poetry and essays on rudeness, mess, prepositions, littleness, literary awkwardness and weeds. She is currently thinking about listening in Romantic Poetry. Her poems have appeared in PN Review, Magma, London Magazine and International Literary Quarterly, Mimic Octopus and Carcanet’s New Poetries V. She will be reading from her first full collection, the art of escape, which will be published by Carcanet in January 2020.
ALEX HOUEN‘s poetry publications include the chapbook Rouge States (Oystercatcher, 2014) and another chapbook (co-written with Geoff Gilbert), Hold! West (Eyewear, 2016). His first full-length collection, Ring Cycle was published by Eyewear in 2018. Recent poems have been published by Stand Magazine, Adjacent Pineapple, Poetry London, Cambridge Literary Review, Glasgow Review of Books, Cordite Review, and CounterText. He is co-editor of the poetry journal Blackbox Manifold, and is Senior Lecturer in Modern English Literature in the Faculty of English.
ROD MENGHAM is the publisher of the Equipage series of pamphlets. His most recent book was Grimspound and Inhabiting Art (Carcanet, 2018). Previous full-length collections were Unsung (Salt, 2001) and Chance of a Storm (Carcanet, 2015). His text and image collaborations with Marc Atkins were published in Still Moving (Veer, 214). He is Reader in Modern English Literature in the Faculty of English and has published numerous critical studies; he has also curated many exhibitions of contemporary art at Jesus College. Having published several translations of contemporary Polish poetry, he is now working on translations of the recent work of French poet Anne Portugal.
DREW MILNE‘s collected poems, entitled In Darkest Capital, were published by Carcanet in 2017. Recent chapbooks include solar commune (Institute of Electric Crinolines, 2017), earthworks (Equipage, 2018) and Lichens in Antarctica (Institute of Electric Crinolines, 2019). Third Nature is forthcoming from Dostoevsky Wannabe in 2019. Poems have recently appeared in PN Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Cordite Review, Lana Turner, Tears in the Fence, Shearsman, Molly Bloom, Pain, Plume, Stride, Smithereens, Erotoplasty, Para.text, Tentacular, Poetry Salzburg Review, Purge, and Blackbox Manifold.