Douglas Dunn

Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrews Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrews University.

Background Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire. He was educated at the Scottish School of Librarianship, and worked as a librarian before he started his studies in Hull. After graduating with a First Class Honours degree from the University of Hull, he worked in the university's Brynmor Jones Library under Philip Larkin. He was friendly with Larkin and admired his poetry, but did not share his political opinions.

He was a Professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1991, becoming Director of the University's Scottish Studies Centre in 1993 until his retirement in September 2008. He is now an Honorary Professor at St Andrews, still undertaking postgraduate supervision in the School of English. He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1992–1994). He holds an honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee, an honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull and St Andrews. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003.

Terry Street, Dunn's first collection of poems, appeared in 1969 and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award as well as a Somerset Maugham Award. Evoking his time working in Hull, the poems take as their inspiration working class life on a street of back-to-backs just off the Beverley Road (the street remains today, but all of the houses have been replaced).

Awards and honours 1968 Eric Gregory Award 1969 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for Terry Street 1969 Somerset Maugham Award for Terry Street 1976 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for Love or Nothing 1976 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Love or Nothing 1981 Hawthornden Prize for St. Kilda's Parliament 1981 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 1985 Whitbread Book of the Year for Elegies 1989 Cholmondeley Award 2003 Officer of the OBE Guggenheim Fellowship Honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee Honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull Honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of St Andrews

Selected works Terry Street - 1969 (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award) The Happier Life - 1972 Love or Nothing - 1974 (winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize) Barbarians - 1979 St. Kilda's Parliament - 1981 (winner of the Hawthornden Prize) Europa's Lover - 1982 Elegies - 1985 Secret Villages (collection of short stories) - 1985 Northlight - 1988 Andromache (translation of Racine's play of the same name) - 1990 Dante's Drum-Kit - 1993 Boyfriends and Girlfriends - 1995 The Donkey's Ears - 2000 The Year's Afternoon - 2000 New Selected Poems 1964-2000 - 2002 Invisible Ink - 2011 The Noise of a Fly - 2017

Reviews White, Kenneth (1982), review of St. Kilda's Parliament, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp.44 & 45, Craig, Cairns (1984), Lourd on My Hert, which includes a review of Europa's Lover, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 15, New Year 1984, pp. 54 & 55,