Martin Stannard

Martin Stannard is a poet and critic. His most recent poetry collections include Faith (Shadowtrain, 2009) and How to Live a Life (Argotist eBooks, 2010). Respondings (Argotist eBooks, 2011) is a collection of essays and reviews from the period 2004–07. He was founding editor of the poetry magazine Joe Soap’s Canoe, which was one of the first British magazines to champion New York School poetry. He edited the online webzine Exultations and Difficulties, and in 2013 co-ordinated the one-off online anthology, August 1, 2013. He has collaborated with the American poet Mark Halliday on a large series of absurdist short plays, most of which have proven to be too funny to get past humourless poetry editors.

Martin is a lively and entertaining reader of his poems, and has performed at many prestigious venues including St Mark’s in New York City and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. He has taught poetry and creative writing in schools, colleges and a variety of community-based environments for almost 30 years, including for the Arvon Foundation. Since 2005 (with the exception of one year as the RLF Fellow in Nottingham) he has been teaching English and culture at a university in China. He went there for a year-long adventure that lasted a couple of years, went home, went back, and stayed. However, at the time of writing his return to what we call the West is becoming increasingly imminent.