Charles Boyle (born 1955 in Leeds) is a British poet and novelist. He also uses the pseudonyms Jack Robinson[1] and Jennie Walker.[2] As Walker, he won the 2008 McKitterick Prize for his novella 24 for 3.[3]

In 2012, Boyle wrote a short piece for The Times Literary Supplement in which he good-naturedly referred to vandalism of this Wikipedia biography.[citation needed]

Biography

Boyle read English at Cambridge University, taught in a Sheffield comprehensive school and in Egypt[4] and worked in publishing, including for several years at Faber and Faber.

In 1980 he married painter Madeleine Strindberg.[5]

He is well known for his 2001 book of poems The Age of Cardboard and String, which had favourable reviews from The Guardian ("The voice is quite beguiling: completely unpretentious yet still resonant and lyrical; linguistically precise and emotionally evasive, often at the same time. We like that.")[6] and Magma Poetry ("['My Alibi'] is an exquisite distillation of much of what Boyle has to say".[7]

In 2007, as a result of his difficulty in getting 24 for 3 published, he established CB editions,[8] a small press dedicated to novellas, translations, and writing in other genres often neglected by mainstream publishers.[9][10]

Titles published by CB editions have won awards including the McKitterick Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize, the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, the Guardian First Book Award, and Forward Prizes for Poetry.[11][12]

Boyle's An Overcoat: Scenes from the Afterlife of H.B. (2016), written under the pseudonym "Jack Robinson", was featured in The Guardian's "Nicholas Lezard's choice" column in April 2017, with Lezard concluding: "I can't think of a wittier, more engaging, stylistically audacious, attentive and generous writer working in the English language right now".[13]

Awards

Works

As Jennie Walker

As Jack Robinson

References

  1. ^ Lezard, Nicholas (1 January 2011). "Days and Nights in W12 by Charles Boyle – review". The Guardian.
  2. ^ "Lauded book by Jennie Walker is really by Charles Boyle".
  3. ^ "Fellow: Charles Boyle". Royal Literary Fund.
  4. ^ Cover copy of Charles Boyle, Affinities (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1977).
  5. ^ Jeremy Noel-Tod; Ian Hamilton, eds. (2013). The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English. Oxford University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-19-964025-6.
  6. ^ Lezard, Nicholas (31 March 2001). "Cheeky alibis". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
  7. ^ Killingworth, Michael (Summer 2001). "When lack of love contaminates". Magma Poetry. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  8. ^ "About & News". CB editions. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  9. ^ Boyle, Charles (September 2015). "The Freedom to Fail". Literary Review (435).
  10. ^ "Freelance".
  11. ^ Onwuemezi, Natasha (17 January 2017). "CB Editions to wind down operations". The Bookseller.
  12. ^ Chandler, Mark (28 March 2019). "Galley Beggar Press and CB Editions jointly win Republic of Consciousness Prize". The Bookseller.
  13. ^ Lezard, Nicholas (22 April 2017). "An Overcoat: Scenes from the Afterlife of H.B. by Jack Robinson". The Guardian (Review section). London. p. 18. Retrieved 27 April 2017.

External links

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