Below are some links to people I like who are (roughly) in the same field as me. Simple.
Aisle16 – The collective I founded in 2000 with Ross Sutherland. Now there’s seven of us – Tim Clare, Joe Dunthorne, Chris Hicks, John Osborne, Joel Stickley, Ross Sutherland and me
Attila The Stockbroker – The grand daddy of the ranting poets. He appeared on the front cover of Melody Maker as an angry young man and 30 years on he’s still angry and still taking poetry to places it shouldn’t go. Always been really supportive of me.
Francesca Beard – The queen of British performance poetry. Nuff said.
Tim Clare – Fellow Aisle16-er and very funny man. His book We Can’t All Be Astronauts is a hilarious coming of age story about reconciling your dreams with reality. He’s written loads of great poems too, most of which I’d nick at the drop of a hat.
Laura Dockrill (aka Dockers MC) – I gave Laura one of her first poetry gigs back in 2007 at Latitude. She’s since gone on to be one of the UK’s most talked about wordsmiths. She’s great and deserves all the glitzy attention.
Joe Dunthorne – Every group of friends has their sickenly successful member, Joe is ours. A sublime novelist, poet and critic.
Chris Hicks – Insanely quick-witted and large armed mainstay of the mighty Aisle16. He should update this page more.
John Cooper Clarke – Formerly the bard of Salford, now the scribe of Colchester. The don of modern British performance poetry. A very nice fellow too.
Yanny Mac - Yan used to be in Aisle16, he’s since gone onto bigger and better things. This is my favourite blog.
Mercy - Liverpool/London based creative agency. They did Ross’ book cover. They also do loads of other cool things. My mate Nafe is their resident poet. Nick Holloway, another pal, runs this top notch blog.
Kate Nash – I met Kate in Edinburgh in 2005. Aisle16 took her in when her flyering job fell through and she became our Rising, Executive Action Officer (REAO for short). She now of course has moved onto slightly bigger things, having number 2 singles and winning Brit Awards.
Martin Newell – This is the man who got me started in poetry. It’s his fault. Great poet and friend.
Molly Naylor – A rising star on the live poetry scene in Britain. I gave her some of her first gigs at Latitude last year and have really enjoyed watching her grow as a writer and performer over the last year. One to watch, as they say.
John Osborne – Fellow Aisle16-er, top poet, and now a non-fiction writer of distinction. His first book Radio Head was Radio 4′s Book of the Week in May 09. This is his blog.
Niall O Sullivan – There are few people on the poetry scene I like as much as this fellow. He writes good quality poetry with wide appeal. He has an ability to write relevantly without ever being cheap. A rare talent.
Penned in the Margins – The burgeoning literary empire of one Mr Tom Chivers, a good all round cove, himself a poet of some merit.
Joel Stickley’s How to Write Badly Well – a very funny blog by my mate Joel.
Ross Sutherland – Ross and I go way back. He’s a brilliant poet.
Byron Vincent - Byron’s a top bloke and a brilliant, very funny poet. This is a link to him on Apples & Snakes’ blog project. He’s typically an excellent blogger.
Hannah Jane Walker – Top rate poet who I run Norwich Poetry Club with. Nasty Little Press have just published her Intro too. Check her out.
Writers Centre Norwich – I’ve worked for this lot for the last two years. They’re a progressive, dynamic and exciting literature development company based in Norwich, under the brilliant stewardship of Chris Gribble, who previously did great work at Manchester Poetry Festival.
