Geraldine Monk

Geraldine Monk (born 1952) is a British poet. She was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. Since the late 1970s, she has published many collections of poetry and has recorded her poetry in collaboration with musicians. Monk's poetry has been published in many anthologies, most recently appearing in the Anthology of 20th Century British and Irish Poetry.thumb

Life

Monk was born into a working-class family and raised as a Roman Catholic, something she believes has had an important effect on her work. She was, she said, "Brought up with a parallel world of saints, angels, martyrs, the Holy Ghost and the Blessed Virgin Mary. No wonder I was so easily spooked. The ‘other world’ was a reality from birth." Halsey has also provided visual art and book designs for several of Monk's books. Monk gained a B.A. in English Studies from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1988, and between 1992 and 1995 was Visiting lecturer in Creative Writing & Communication Studies at Chesterfield College. Between 1992 and 1999 she was Creative Writer at St. Luke's Hospice.

Poetry

Monk's first pamphlet appeared in 1974, self-published under the imprint of Siren Press. From the mid-seventies onwards, her work was published by various small publishers, including Bob Cobbing's Writers Forum, and Peter Hodgkiss's Galloping Dog Press. From the start, and throughout her career, the importance of performance, and the sound of the spoken word has been a major part of Monk's poetry. She is regarded as an innovative, or experimental, poet. Her work incorporates song, found text, and material drawn from such sources as childhood games In 1994 she published the long poem "Interregnum", which is an account of the hanging of the Pendle witches in 1612. "Interregnum" includes themes of landscape, the relationship between the animal and human worlds, Monk's most recent works, such as "Escafeld Hangings", continue one of her themes of women in history, focussing in that case, on Mary Queen of Scots. Monk has increasingly collaborated with musicians in her performances and recordings.

Monk's pamphlet publications, or publications in other media, are often brought together into larger books, such as Noctivagations (2001), a selected volume of work written since the mid-1990s. For example, Noctivagations includes the sequence "Songings" (the subject of Monk’s collaboration with Martin Archer). This piece, according to Scott Thurston 'resonates with lyric moments of visionary power'. In 2003, Salt Publishing brought out Monk's Selected Poems, and in 2007 also published The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk, a book of critical works on her poetry.