Come and celebrate 50 years of Penguin poetry at the University of Bristol

Press release issued: 23 February 2012

A celebration of Penguin poetry and the 1960s will take place at the University of Bristol next month featuring Al Alvarez, one of the most influential critics of recent times, and three of the original Penguin Modern Poets: John Fuller, Edward Lucie-Smith and Tom Raworth.

‘The New Poetry & Penguin Modern Poets 50 Years’ is a one day conference, hosted by the Bristol Institute for Research in the Arts and Humanities (BIRTHA), in association with the AHRC Penguin Archive Project, the University of Bristol’s Department of English and the Alumni Office. The conference takes place on Friday 16 March in the Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol.

The conference will culminate with an evening event: Al Alvarez in conversation, followed by poetry readings by John Fuller, Edward Lucie-Smith and Tom Raworth. This event, which begins at 6pm in the Wills Memorial Building, is free and all are welcome; to register, click here.

Al Alvarez edited The New Poetry, a groundbreaking anthology of post-war English poetry, published in 1962. He was poetry editor of the Observer in the 1950s and 60s, and has also written acclaimed books on everything from poetry to poker. He is perhaps best known for his study of suicide The Savage God with its classic memoir of his friend, Sylvia Plath.

Edward Lucie-Smith is an internationally known poet, curator, photographer, historian, and anthologist, and an art critic whose books are standard texts across the globe. A key figure in the poetry world of the 1960s, he edited Penguin's British Poetry Since 1945, a book which introduced generations of readers to modern verse.

John Fuller is a poet, novelist, critic and fellow emeritus of Magdalen College, Oxford. Winner of the Forward Prize for poetry in 1996 and the Michael Braude Award for Light Verse in 2006, he has also been awarded the Whitbread First Novel award and been nominated for the Booker Prize.

Tom Raworth has been one of the most important figures in the poetic avant-garde of the last fifty years. A poet with a substantial international reputation, he was awarded the Antonio Delfini prize for lifetime achievement in Italy in 2007.

To register for the conference (by 29 February), click here £35, delegate rate; £18, postgraduate rate. All welcome. The conference begins at 9am on Friday 16 March in the Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol

Further information

Please contact Penguin Poetry for further information.