Jeffrey Wainwright

NEWS NEWS Jeffrey Wainwright’s new book of poems, CLARITY OR DEATH! is published on July 30 2008 by Carcanet Press.

The title is inspired by these words of Wittgenstein, who may or may not have been serious: 'I wish to God that I were more intelligent and everything would finally become clear to me, or else that I didn’t live much longer!' Sometimes solemnly and sometimes quizzically, these poems deal with the desire for such ‘clarity’ in our knowledge of the world, the universe and ourselves.

Poems from and more information about CLARITY OR DEATH! together with excerpts from an interview with Jeffrey Wainwright are on the Poetry page.

CLARITY OR DEATH! can be ordered direct from CARCANET PRESS: www.carcanet.co.uk (see Links).

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Jeffrey Wainwright's previous books SELECTED POEMS(1985), THE RED-HEADED PUPIL(1994) and OUT OF THE AIR(1999) are published by Carcanet Press.
   
A book on the purposes and styles of poetry, POETRY THE BASICS, was published by Routledge in April 2004.

His most recent critical work is ACCEPTABLE WORDS: ESSAYS ON THE POETRY OF GEOFFREY HILL, Manchester University Press December 2005. After an overview essay, the book includes essays on the different volumes of Hill's work up to and including SCENES FROM COMUS (2005) and discussion of work published since. More details at www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk.

Wainwright has translated plays by Péguy, Claudel, Corneille and the text of his version of Bernard-Marie Koltès' IN THE SILENCE OF COTTON FIELDS appears in Koltès: Plays 2 (Methuen 2004).

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FORTHCOMING: In PN REVIEW 182 July-August, new poems and an interview-discussion with Helen Tookey (see Poetry Pages).
In THE READER, Summer 2008, an article in the 'The Poet on His Work' series. www.thereader.co.uk.

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In March 2008 he retired as Professor in the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to write full-time. He gives public readings and talks about poetry. Please contact jeffrey.wainwright@btinternet.com.

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For eleven years he was northern theatre critic for The Independent, reviewing productions across the region from Birmingham to Lancaster. He has also contributed to BBC Radio arts programmes.