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Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets
Book by
- GenresPoetry
Paperback
Published January 1, 1997
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About the author
Maura Dooley
23 books8 followersMaura Dooley was born in Truro, grew up in Bristol.
Educated at the University of York, she gained a postgraduate certificate of Education at Bristol. She is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
She edited Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets (1997) and The Honey Gatherers: A Book of Love Poems (2002) for Bloodaxe, and How Novelists Work (2000) for Seren. Life Under Water (Bloodaxe Books, 2008) is her first new collection since Sound Barrier: Poems 1982-2002 (Bloodaxe Books, 2002), which drew on collections including Explaining Magnetism (1991) and Kissing a Bone (1996), both Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Kissing a Bone was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Life Under Water was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2008.
She was a Centre Director at the Arvon Foundation and founded and directed the Literature programme at the South Bank Centre. She works in film and theatre and has recently helped develop educational films for Jim Henson Productions. Her work in the theatre includes running workshops for Performing Arts Labs, devising new plays for young people. In 2001 she was a judge for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the National Poetry Competition and the London Arts' New London Writers Awards. She has also chaired the Poetry Book Society.
Educated at the University of York, she gained a postgraduate certificate of Education at Bristol. She is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
She edited Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets (1997) and The Honey Gatherers: A Book of Love Poems (2002) for Bloodaxe, and How Novelists Work (2000) for Seren. Life Under Water (Bloodaxe Books, 2008) is her first new collection since Sound Barrier: Poems 1982-2002 (Bloodaxe Books, 2002), which drew on collections including Explaining Magnetism (1991) and Kissing a Bone (1996), both Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Kissing a Bone was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Life Under Water was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2008.
She was a Centre Director at the Arvon Foundation and founded and directed the Literature programme at the South Bank Centre. She works in film and theatre and has recently helped develop educational films for Jim Henson Productions. Her work in the theatre includes running workshops for Performing Arts Labs, devising new plays for young people. In 2001 she was a judge for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the National Poetry Competition and the London Arts' New London Writers Awards. She has also chaired the Poetry Book Society.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 9, 2007
An interesting collection, sort of hit-and-miss. Some of it was rubbish. Some of it was painfully good. Ann Samson, Siobhan Campbell, Eleanor Brown... Eleanor Brown especially. Her poem "Tragic Hero" really struck a chord with me:
"Tragic Hero," Eleanor Brown
Self-styled reluctant womaniser; less
predator, he, than lost-boy-victim, yes?
Touchingly hesitant, he, to confess
that all his life he has been in a mess;
meanwhile, his gentle, adept eyes assess
the fastenings and workings of her dress.
And after her? Another her, to bless
his cotton socks, to soothe his loneliness,
to kiss his melancholy lips, to press
her undistinguished gift of a caress
upon him, whose high-seeming, strange distress
is permanent post-coital tristesse.
See what I mean?
"Tragic Hero," Eleanor Brown
Self-styled reluctant womaniser; less
predator, he, than lost-boy-victim, yes?
Touchingly hesitant, he, to confess
that all his life he has been in a mess;
meanwhile, his gentle, adept eyes assess
the fastenings and workings of her dress.
And after her? Another her, to bless
his cotton socks, to soothe his loneliness,
to kiss his melancholy lips, to press
her undistinguished gift of a caress
upon him, whose high-seeming, strange distress
is permanent post-coital tristesse.
See what I mean?
Displaying 1 of 1 review