Robert Sheppard

Robert Sheppard (born 14 November 1955) is a British poet and critic. He is at the forefront of the movement sometimes called "linguistically innovative poetry."

Life

Robert Sheppard was born in 1955 and was educated at the University of East Anglia (BA; MA; PhD). In 1996 he moved from London to Liverpool to teach at Edge Hill University as Professor of Poetry and Poetics and Programme Leader of the MA in Creative Writing. In 1996, Sheppard became Emeritus Professor at Edge Hill.

Poetry and Criticism

Sheppard's magnum opus is his long-running work "Twentieth Century Blues". This was composed over many years, and published piece-meal before Salt Publishing brought out the complete work in 2008. "Hymns to the God in which My Typewriter Believes", published in 2006, illustrates Sheppard's view of poetry as one art among many, as it alludes to and builds on other artforms. Sheppard's sonnet sequence, "Warrant Error" was published by Shearsman Books in 2009. According to Sean Colletti, Sheppard is a major talent, whose use of form includes precise use of the couplet, while Alan Baker calls his work "political poetry of the first order." According to critic James Byrne, "one of the ways Sheppard has extended the poetic tradition in England (where he has lived all his life) is via a complex reworking of poetic forms." Byrne asserts that "for Sheppard, as it was for Creeley and Charles Olson before him, ‘form is content'."

Sheppard has edited important studies of poets Roy Fisher and Lee Harwood, and is editor of the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry" and the blogzine "Pages".

Published works

Poetry: Returns:Textures,1985 Daylight Robbery: Stride, 1990 The Flashlight Sonata: Stride,1993 Empty Diaries: Stride, 1998 The Lores: Reality Street Editions, 2003 The Anti-Orpheus: A Notebook Tin Pan Arcadia: Salt Publishing, 2004 Hymns to the God in which My Typewriter Believes: Stride, 2006 Complete Twentieth Century Blues: Salt Publishing, 2008 Warrant Error, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2009 Berlin Bursts, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2011 A Translated Man, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2013 Words Out of Time, Newton-le-Willows: Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2015 A Translated Man, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2013 History or Sleep: Selected Poems, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2015 Unfinish: London: Veer Publications, 2016 Bad Idea, Newton-le-Willows: Knives Forks and Spoons, 2018 The English Strain: Shearsman Books, 2021 British Standards, Shearsman Books, 2024

Shorter Poetry Collections and Pamphlets:

Dedicated to you but you weren’t listening, London: Writers Forum, 1979 Returns, London:Textures,1985 Private Number, London: Northern Lights Publishers, 1986 Letter from the Blackstock Road, London: Oasis Books, 1988 Internal Exile, Southampton: Torque Press,1988 Codes and Diodes (with Bob Cobbing), London: Writers Forum, 1991 Fox Spotlights, Cheltenham: The Short Run Press, 1995 Free Fists (with Patricia Farrell), London: Writers Forum, 1996 Neutral Drums (with Patricia Farrell), London: Writers Forum, 1999 Blatent Blather/Virulent Whoops (with Bob Cobbing), London: Writers Forum, 2001 The Anti-Orpheus: a notebook, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2004. (Also available as an e-book at www.shearsman. com) Risk Assessment (with Rupert Loydell) Damaged Goods, 2006 The Given, Newton-le-Willows: Knives Forks and Spoons, 2010 The Only Life, Newton-le-Willows: Knives Forks and Spoons, 2012 HAP: Understudies of Thomas Wyatt's Petrarch, Newton-le-Willows: Knives Forks and Spoons, 2018

As Editor:

Floating Capital: New Poets from London News for the Ear: Homage to Roy Fisher The Salt Companion to Lee Harwood The Door of Taldire: Selected Pomes of Paul Evans Twitters for a Lark - Poetry of the European Union of Imaginary Authors Lee Harwood - New Collected Poems (with Kelvin Corcoran)

Criticism: For Language: Poetics and Linguistically Innovative Poetry 1978-1997 The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and its Discontents (Liverpool University Press, 2005) Iain Sinclair (Northcote House, 2007) The Necessity of Poetics (Shearsman Books, 2024)