Geraldine Monk

Biography

I build atmospheric narratives gleaned from the coincidences of circumstance and the emotional geography of place. I want the physicality of words to hook around the lurking ghosts and drag them from their petrified corners. I wrote these words quite a few years ago and they still best sum up what I am attempting through poetry. My main books of poetry are as follows: 'Interregnum' Creation Books, 1994 'Noctivagations' West House Books, 2001 'Escafeld Hangings' West House Books 2005 'Ghost & Other Sonnets' Salt Publishing 2008 My most recent publications are: 'Lobe Scarps & Finials' Leafe Press 2011 'Pendle Witch-Words' K.F.S. 2012 I devised and edited a collection of essays on the poetry scene in the U.K. roughly post-war pre-web but much more fluid in its scope with contributors ranging from Roy Fisher to Chris McCabe. It is: 'Cusp:Recollections of Poetry in Transition' Shearsman Press, 2012 Selected essays about my work: 'The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk' edited by Scott Thurston, 2007 Polaroidy: The Revels of Geraldine Monk by Adam Piette, Poetry Review 2012. Socio-Poetic Soundscape of Geraldine Monk by Meredith Quartermain. English Studies, Canada. Lyric Interventions (Lyrical Practice and Geraldine Monk) by Linda A. Kinnahan. University of Iowa Press, Iowa. Translation, Rewriting and the Marginal City in Geraldine Monk's 'Escafeld Hangings' by Zoe Skoulding, Bangor University for Sterling Univeristy Conference, 2008 Geraldine Monk, Fishing By Obstinate Isles by Keith Tuma, Northwestern University Press. USA. I have often worked with musicians and toured with Martin Archer and Julie Tippetts. At the moment my main interest is working with Juxtavoices an 'antichoir' (my coinage) founded by Martin Archer and Alan Halsey.

Samples

Walls hurt my face they're a too brittle trick for the unghosted flesh. I sit and unpick veins to get at you and undo my body - I'm sick of sick (my mouth mouths) I'm sick of sick. From Escafeld Hangings. There are some shakey recording of me on You Tube and Vimeo.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.