Interests:

My main interest is writing poetry, and my latest collection is London Bridge, of which Michael Schmidt has remarked, ‘Simon Smith has an instinct for unexpected forms which wring from his language memorable registers and tones.’  The American poet Bill Berkson said, ‘[this] book is really zinging.’ Three earlier full-length collections are: Fifteen Exits, Reverdy Road and Mercury.  In 2009 I was a Hawthornden Writing Fellow.  From 1991 to 2007, I worked at the Poetry Library in London, and was a judge of the National Poetry Competition in 2004.  I have written reviews and essays on poetry for Poetry Review and PN Review, and my translations of poems by Pierre Reverdy, Martial and Catullus, have appeared in Poetry Review, PN Review and Stand.  Alongside David Herd I have collaborated with both Jack Hues and The-Quartet on the project ‘Rote-Through’, and with Sam Bailey, Evan Parker and Matt Wright on the project ‘Feedback’.  I am a co-founder of the Sounds New Poetry festival, and currently I am director of Assistant and Associate Lecturers.

Research Supervision:

I am interested in supervising research in the following areas of creative writing: lyric poetry, avant-garde poetry, poem sequences, prose poems, poetry translation.

Teaching:

Undergraduate

EN326: Prose: Theory and Practice (Stage 1)

EN327: Poetry: Theory and Practice (convenor) (Stage 1)

EN663: The Book Project (convenor) (Stage 3)

Postgraduate

EN838: Revisioning: 21st Century Translation (convenor)

EN892: Poetry 1 (convenor)

EN***: The Creative Writing Magazine (convenor)

EN899: Paris the Residency (based at the University of Kent’s Paris campus)

Simon reading from his work: