Michael Laskey
Poet, editor of Smiths Knoll and founder of the Aldeburgh Festival
Michael Laskey is a full time freelance poet, editor, and tutor with many years experience of promoting contemporary poetry.
He founded the international Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 1989 and directed it through its first decade. In 2008 he stepped down as Chairman, but continues to be associated with the Festival as an honorary consultant.
He also founded the poetry magazine Smiths Knoll with Roy Blackman in 1991 and since Roy's death in 2002 has been editing it with Joanna Cutts.
As a poet he has published four collections and three pamphlets – Cloves of Garlic (1988), which won the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, In the Fruit Cage (1997) and Living by the Sea (2007).
His first two collections were both Poetry Book Society Recommendations: Thinking of Happiness (Peterloo, 1991) and The Tightrope Wedding (Smith/Doorstop, 1999), which was also shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. Permission to Breathe (Smith/Doorstop, 2004) was followed by The Man Alone: New & Selected Poems (Smith/Doorstop, 2008).
ON HAVING GIVEN UP CRICKET
I shall play cricket in heaven
in return for the afternoons
gladly given to the other
pleasure of others’ leisure.
I shall walk, without haste, to the wicket
and nod to the angels kitted
in their whites waiting to discern
the kind of batspirit I am.
And one stroke in heaven, one dream
of a cover drive will redeem
every meeting of bat
and ball I’ve done without.
And I’ll bowl too, come on to bowl
leg-breaks with such control
of flight and slight changes of pace
that one over will efface
the faint regret I now feel.
But best of all I shall field:
alert in the heavenly deep,
beyond the boundary of sleep.
- Michael Laskey, 'Thinking of Happiness' (Peterloo, 1991)
Smith/Doorstop titles
Cloves of Garlic (pamphlet, 1988) — winner in the Book & Pamphlet Competition
Permission to Breathe (book, 2004)
The Tightrope Wedding — PBS Recommendation and shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize.
Living By the Sea (pamphlet, 2007)
The Man Alone: New and Selected Poems (book, 2008)
In The North magazine
North 30 – In conversation with Maura Dooley
Audio
Michael Laskey reading 'The Page Turner' at the Poetry Trust, 2009Michael reading his work at The Poetry Archive
Reviews
‘Michael Laskey is his own man, so when I compare him to Larkin and Heaney, it is merely to set him in the company where he rightly belongs …’ – Craig Raine, from ‘Laskey at 60’ in The North 35, 2004
‘[He displays] originality of thought and quality of execution’ – Robert Potts, The Guardian
‘Fluent, likeable, user-friendly poems’ – Fleur Adcock, Sunday Times
‘There is an engaging warmth in these poems, and a remarkable imagination’ – William Scammell, Independent on Sunday
‘A sustaining book, sensitive in insight and cadence’ – Michael Hulse, Poetry Review
‘An unflinching celebration’ – Tessa Lewis, PN Review
‘Unflinching, clear, emotionally precise, touching, particular, these are very, very good poems’ – Craig Raine
Review of The Man Alone in The Dark Horse (by Helena Nelson)
Publicity
Complimentary copies of Smith/Doorstop titles are available for publicity or review, and a 40% discount is provided for trade sales. (Contact us using the form here.)
To book a Smith/Doorstop poet for a reading, talk or interview, contact The Poetry Business on marketing@poetrybusiness.co.uk or phone 0114 346 3037. (If the poet has their own agent or representation, we will be able to put you in touch with them.)
