James Fenton
Royal Society of Literature Fellow
2007 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Oxford Professor of Poetry (1994-1999).
James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He has worked as political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and columnist.
Fenton's Selected Poems is published by Penguin and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is also the editor of The New Faber Book of Love Poems, D.H. Lawrence's Selected Poems (Penguin) and a new edition of William Blake's Selected Poems (Faber and Faber).
Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, on James Fenton:
"There is a strong case to be made that James Fenton is the finest poet writing in English. His technical virtuosity is beyond doubt; his long experience as war correspondent, journalist and traveller has given him an unmatched range of subject matter - war and revolution, the dementia of collective passions, reflections on fate, and love - he has written some of the most beautiful love poems of our times. He is a poet of great emotional depth and wisdom. Increasingly, his work has a strong connection with song. He also has a taste for light verse of exquisite charm and humour. He is a modern master."
-In response to a question from the National Book Critics Circle
For more information please visit jamesfenton.com or the website's Facebook supplement.