Graft Poetry Authors

Andrew Boobier

Andrew was born in Haworth, West Yorkshire, and currently works in New Media. He attended York University and gained a first class degree in English where he also won the Ursula Wadey Memorial prize for his translation of Georges Bataille's Histoire de l'oeil.

He has published poetry and translations widely in the UK & USA and was nominated in 2003 for a Pushcart Prize.

His debut collection, Reader, help me was published by Graft Poetry in April 2008.

Julia Deakin

Julia Deakin was born in Nuneaton and teaches at the University of Bradford. Her work is widely published and she has read on Radio 4's Poetry Please. The Half-Mile-High Club was a Poetry Business competition winner and her first collection, Without a Dog (Graft 2008) impressed both Anne Stevenson and Simon Armitage.

Recent competition wins include the Yorkshire Open, the Torriano, the LIPPfest and the Elmet. Her second collection is due out soon.

Nicholas Bielby

Nicholas Bielby is a City and Guilds qualified Craftsman Welder in MMA, Gas and Mig and Tig. He went from grammar school in Huddersfield to Cambridge with an Exhibition in English to study under Leavis, but swapped to Moral Sciences. After a time abroad in India and Africa, he spent most of his working life in HE and Teacher Education in Bradford and at Leeds University. He became a nationally recognised expert on reading.

As well as poetry, he's written books on 'the new phonics' and early Tudor poetry and is currently working on the aesthetics of Bible translation and interpretation since 1885.

Crooked Smoke, published by Graft Poetry in March 2011, is Nicholas' latest collection.

Adam Strickson

Trained at Dartington College of Arts (Theatre), Sunderland Polytechnic (Sculpture) and the University of Huddersfield (MA in Poetry), Adam is a poet, librettist and producer. He has been working as a freelance writer for 9 years and is currently Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing (.4) in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds.

After an early career as a performer and maker with theatre companies like Horse and Bamboo and Satellite Arts, Adam co-founded Chol Theatre, the pioneering inter-cultural company based in Kirklees, and was artistic director for 13 years until 2002. He led projects throughout the north of England and in India and Bangladesh. He has written plays for the Oldham Coliseum, Peshkar Productions, Chol and an acclaimed trilogy for Burnley Youth Theatre. He has completed four writing and short film commissions for Integreat Yorkshire around regeneration themes.

In 2005, his first collection of poetry, ‘An Indian Rug Surprised by Snow’, was published by Wrecking Ball Press (Hull) and he was poet in residence at the Ilkley Literature Festival. In 2006, he was writer in residence for the town of Boston, Lincolnshire and in 2010 schools poet in residence for Bridlington Poetry Festival. He has recently won the Yorkshire Prize in the Yorkshire Open Poetry Competition and has had a poem featured as ‘podcast of the week’ by ‘Anon’ and Scottish Poetry Library.

Adam regularly collaborates with composers and his opera, ‘Green Angel’, was premiered in Leeds in January 2011. His popular poetry readings are often accompanied by South Asian music.

Between now and autumn 2012, Adam is leading Wing Beats, a music-theatre project with the University of Leeds and organisations in the East Riding based on the experience of flight which forms part of the Cultural Olympiad. www.moveand.com

Tear up the lace, published by Graft Poetry in March 2011, is Adam's latest collection.