Andrew Motion

Professor Andrew Motion (born October 26, 1952) is an English poet, novelist and biographer who is the current Poet Laureate. His poems are known for the insightful way in which they explore loss and desolation.

Biography

• 1976 first published poetry
• 1976 - 1980 taught English at the University of Hull
• 1980 - 1982 edited the Poetry Review
• 1981 wins Arvon international poetry competition with The Letter
• 1982 edits, with Blake Morrison, the Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry
• 1982 - 1989 Editorial Director and Poetry Editor at Chatto & Windus
• 1986 The Lamberts wins the Somerset Maugham Award
• 1989- Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia
• 1994 Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life wins the Whitbread Prize for Biography
• 1999 appointed as Poet Laureate for ten years only
• 2003 appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London

Raised in Stisted near Braintree in Essex, he was educated at Radley College. When he was 16, his mother had a riding accident and spent the next ten years in and out of a coma before she died. During this time, he read English at University College, Oxford and studied the poetry of Edward Thomas for his MLitt. degree. Motion has said that he tried to keep his memory of his mother alive through poetry.

Related Topics:
Braintree - Essex - Radley College - University College, Oxford - Edward Thomas

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Andrew Motion is a member of the Arts Council of England and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Beside the prizes mentioned above, he has won the Arvon/Observer Prize, the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Related Topics:
Arts Council of England - Royal Society of Literature - John Llewelyn Rhys Prize - Dylan Thomas Prize

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