BRP History by Rip Bulkeley
The seeds of Back Room Poets were sown in the mid-1990s, when aspects of my private life and the Dunblane school massacre of March 1996 combined to reawaken my always diffident and intermittent creative faculties. For several years I roamed the Oxford poetry scene in search of workshops and reading spaces with a firm footing in the town, rather than the self-regarding and impermanent academic community. I soon found a warm welcome at Matt Sage’s incomparable weekly performance space, CatWeazle, then hosted at the Jude the Obscure in Walton Street. It took a little longer to make my way to Giles Goodland’s excellent Last Gasp poetry workshop at the East Oxford Community Centre. Jolted by the untimely loss of one of its members, however, Last Gasp was drawing inevitably to a close, leaving a gap which needed filling.
By February 1999 I was touting a proposal for an anthology of contemporary Oxford poetry, with a phrase from a recent poem by myself for the title. Island City met with widespread support from ‘names’ like Tom Paulin and Bernard O’Donoghue and practical help with selection of poems from members of Last Gasp and other friends. Once the principles of geographical coverage, town and gown, known and unknown poets, and one poem each were settled the book rapidly took shape, helped enormously by some professional design input from my friend and neighbour Peter Lawrence. The book was launched with a reading at the Northgate Hall in St Michael’s St. on 16 November 1999, followed by a memorable dinner at Chutneys nearby.
The pace at which things were moving by then can be seen from the fact that Back Room Poets was set up two weeks later from a meeting held in the Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, on 29 November 1999. Those present included Rip Bulkeley, Bob Wilson (who provided the name), Rachel Wiggans, Paul Sutton, Jeremy Hilton, Simon Davies, Maurice O'Connor, Penelope Newsome and Peter Challis – I’m sure there were several more. BRP held its first workshop at the same venue on Thursday 9 December 1999 and has seldom looked back since. Early highlights, “consule Ripo”, included a city-wide poetry festival and our own anthology, East of Auden, both in 2003. Perhaps our fifteenth birthday should be celebrated with a sequel?
The seeds of Back Room Poets were sown in the mid-1990s, when aspects of my private life and the Dunblane school massacre of March 1996 combined to reawaken my always diffident and intermittent creative faculties. For several years I roamed the Oxford poetry scene in search of workshops and reading spaces with a firm footing in the town, rather than the self-regarding and impermanent academic community. I soon found a warm welcome at Matt Sage’s incomparable weekly performance space, CatWeazle, then hosted at the Jude the Obscure in Walton Street. It took a little longer to make my way to Giles Goodland’s excellent Last Gasp poetry workshop at the East Oxford Community Centre. Jolted by the untimely loss of one of its members, however, Last Gasp was drawing inevitably to a close, leaving a gap which needed filling.
By February 1999 I was touting a proposal for an anthology of contemporary Oxford poetry, with a phrase from a recent poem by myself for the title. Island City met with widespread support from ‘names’ like Tom Paulin and Bernard O’Donoghue and practical help with selection of poems from members of Last Gasp and other friends. Once the principles of geographical coverage, town and gown, known and unknown poets, and one poem each were settled the book rapidly took shape, helped enormously by some professional design input from my friend and neighbour Peter Lawrence. The book was launched with a reading at the Northgate Hall in St Michael’s St. on 16 November 1999, followed by a memorable dinner at Chutneys nearby.
The pace at which things were moving by then can be seen from the fact that Back Room Poets was set up two weeks later from a meeting held in the Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, on 29 November 1999. Those present included Rip Bulkeley, Bob Wilson (who provided the name), Rachel Wiggans, Paul Sutton, Jeremy Hilton, Simon Davies, Maurice O'Connor, Penelope Newsome and Peter Challis – I’m sure there were several more. BRP held its first workshop at the same venue on Thursday 9 December 1999 and has seldom looked back since. Early highlights, “consule Ripo”, included a city-wide poetry festival and our own anthology, East of Auden, both in 2003. Perhaps our fifteenth birthday should be celebrated with a sequel?