Who we are, and what we do

The Poetry Centre was launched by the English Department at Oxford Brookes in 1998, and hosts an annual programme of events, including research seminars, workshops, and community projects.

Our current activities are in the areas of poetry and science; poetry and the environment; performance poetry in Oxfordshire; poetry and utopias; and the poetics of modernist drama. We also, in collaboration with Oxford City Council, co-ordinate the Oxford City Poet scheme. The first City Poet, Kate Clanchy, took office in 2011, with a remit to work to encourage knowledge of, and the writing of, poetry, in Oxford and environs.

Many of our events include academics working alongside practitioners in the creation of new poems, and new understanding of the relation between academic and poetic discourses. In addition, the Centre acts as a base for post-doctoral researchers and graduate students studying and writing in the area. It oversees the Royal Literary Fund Fellowship scheme at Oxford Brookes Department for English and Modern Languages as well. This Centre website has its own dedicated podcasts and exhibitions relating to poetry and poets in the region.

Key staff at the Centre include: Dr Eóin Flannery (Director), Dr Andrea Macrae, Dr Alex Goody, Dr Eric White, Dr Niall Munro, and Dr Simon White. Other members of English and Modern Languages at Oxford Brookes teach and work in the area, and support the Centre’s activities.

Advisory Board

In addition to the staff listed above who run the Centre on a day-to-day basis, we also have an Advisory Board with whom we meet formally once a year, and who provide a general steer. The members of the Advisory Board are as follows:

Fiona Sampson (poet, and former editor of Poetry Review)

Bernard O’Donoghue (poet and academic)

Jo Shapcott (poet, and former President of the Poetry Society)

Andrew McNeillie (poet, and founder and editor of Clutag Press)

Professor Janet Beer (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes)