Ian McMillan

Ian McMillan has been a poet, broadcaster, commentator and programme maker for over 20 years. Selected publications for Carcanet Press include: Perfect Catch, (2000), I Found This Shirt, (1998) and Dad, the Donkey’s on Fire, (1994)  and for Macmillan Children’s Books: The Invisible Villain (2002) and The Very Best of Ian McMillan (2001). Other writing includes four one-woman shows for performer Ruth Curtis: Fiction, Waves, The Phone Show and Out of This World.

Since 2002, Ian has hosted The Verb, BBC R3’s arts programme dedicated to investigating the word and its expression around the globe. Other broadcasting includes co-writing three series of The Blackburn Files and two series of Richard Matthewman for BBC Radio 4, as well as co-presenting with the late Martyn Wiley. He was filmed being thrown to the canvas by The Dog in Grimsby whilst performing a poem about World Federation Wrestling. He has written articles for the Mail On Sunday, a feature for the GuardianG2 and a regular column for the Barnsley Chronicle, plus journalism for Q, Mojo, Poetry Review and the Yorkshire Post.

Performance work includes thousands of gigs since the mid-seventies, including ten years with Circus of Poets. Live projects have seen Ian making up poems with his audiences at The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and presenting Morris Stars with Radio 1’s Mark Radcliffe.

Among the many posts held by Ian McMillan are Barnsley Football Club’s poet-in-residence, Yorkshire TV’s Investigative Poet, Mobile Bard of the late Northern Spirit rail network and Humberside Police’s Beat Poet – the World’s first poet-in-residence with a police force.