Brian Bilston

Last updated
Brian Bilston
BornPaul Millicheap
(1970-06-14) 14 June 1970 (age 53)
Birmingham, England
OccupationPoet, writer
Period2010s–present

Paul Millicheap (born 14 June 1970), who writes as Brian Bilston, is a British poet and author.

Contents

Born in Birmingham, he studied at the University of Wales, Swansea, before entering the publishing industry as a marketing manager, notably for John Wiley in Oxford. [1]

Using the pseudonym Brian Bilston, he began publishing short and pithy, often humorous, poems on Twitter, which were then spread widely on social media. Bilston gained up to 400,000 followers, and has been described as "The Poet Laureate of Twitter". [2] [3] The poet Ian McMillan described him as "a laureate for our fractured times", [4] and he has been compared to Don Marquis, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash. [5]

He has published three collections of verse, You Took the Last Bus Home (2016); Alexa, what is there to know about love? (2021); and Days Like These: An Alternative Guide to the Year in 366 Poems (2022). He has also written a book of football poems, 50 Ways to Score a Goal (2021). His first novel, Diary of a Somebody (2019), was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for First Novel, and his poem "Refugees" has been published as an illustrated book for children. [5] [6] In 2023, he published a book of "seasonally adjusted poems", And So This Is Christmas. [7]

He has been called "the Banksy of the poetry world"; [8] in publicity photographs promoting his speaking tours, he hides his face behind a book. [4]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Ann Duffy</span> Scottish poet and playwright (born 1955)

Dame Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She was the first female poet, the first Scottish-born poet and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Armitage</span> English poet (born 1963)

Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Elliott Clarke</span> Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic (born 1960)

George Elliott Clarke, is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015, and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known largely for its use of a vast range of literary and artistic traditions, its lush physicality and its bold political substance. One of Canada's most illustrious poets, Clarke is also known for chronicling the experience and history of the Black Canadian communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that he has coined "Africadia".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Zephaniah</span> British poet and author (1958–2023)

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Dove</span> American poet and author (born 1952)

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position (1937–86). Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. Since 1989, she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she held the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English from 1993 to 2020; as of 2020, she holds the chair of Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Patten</span> English poet (born 1946)

Brian Patten is an English poet and author. He came to prominence in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool poets, and writes primarily lyrical poetry about human relationships. His famous works include "Little Johnny's Confessions", "The Irrelevant Song", "Vanishing Trick", "Emma's Doll", and "Impossible Parents".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian McMillan (poet)</span> English poet, journalist, playwright, broadcaster (born 1956)

Ian McMillan is an English poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster. He is known for his strong and distinctive Yorkshire accent and his incisive, friendly interview style on programmes such as BBC Radio 3's The Verb. He lives in Darfield, the village of his birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rosen</span> British childrens author and poet (born 1946)

Michael Wayne Rosen is a British children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from 25 March 2007 to 23 July 2009. He won the 2023 PEN Pinter Prize, awarded by English PEN, for his "fearless" body of work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Children's poetry</span> Poetic genre

Children's poetry is poetry written for, appropriate for, or enjoyed by children.

Jane Holland is an English poet, novelist and astrologer. She won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors for her poetry in 1996 and her YA novel Witchstruck, written as Victoria Lamb, won the Romantic Novelists' Association's Young Adult Romantic Novel of the Year Award for 2013. Her sister is the novelist, actress and singer Sarah Holland. She also writes commercial fiction under various pseudonyms, including Betty Walker, JJ Holland, Victoria Lamb, Elizabeth Moss, Beth Good and Hannah Coates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy K. Smith</span> American poet

Tracy K. Smith is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published five collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume Life on Mars. Her memoir, Ordinary Light, was published in 2015.

Alan Duncan Morrison is a British poet.

The Poet Laureate of New Jersey was an honor presented biennially by the Governor of New Jersey to a distinguished New Jersey poet. Created in 1999, this position existed for less than four years and was abolished by the legislature effective July 2, 2003. When the New Jersey State Legislature created the laureate position, the bill provided specifically for the creation of an award named in honor of twentieth-century poet and physician William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) who resided in Rutherford, New Jersey. However, the legislature recognized that the award's recipient would "be considered the poet laureate of the State of New Jersey for a period of two years." Before the position was abolished, only two poets, Gerald Stern and Amiri Baraka, had been appointed as the state's poet laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Eggleton</span> New Zealand poet and writer

David Eggleton is a New Zealand poet, critic and writer. Eggleton has been awarded the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry and in 2019 was appointed New Zealand Poet Laureate, a title he held until 2022. Eggleton's work has appeared in a multitude of publications in New Zealand and he has released over 18 poetry books (1986–2001) with a variety of publishers, including Penguin.

Warsan Shire is a British writer, poet, editor and teacher, who was born to Somali parents in Kenya. In 2013, she was awarded the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize, chosen from a shortlist of six candidates out of a total 655 entries. Her words "No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark", from the poem "Conversations about Home ", have been called "a rallying call for refugees and their advocates".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaveh Akbar</span> Iranian-American writer

Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Gorman</span> American poet and activist (born 1998)

Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. She rose to fame in 2021 for writing and delivering her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden. Gorman's inauguration poem generated international acclaim, and shortly thereafter, two of her books achieved best-seller status, and she obtained a professional management contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. L. Lang</span> American poet (born 1983)

Diana Lucille Lang, known professionally as D. L. Lang, is an American poet. She has published twelve full-length books of poetry, and served as the Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California.

Poet Laureate of Philadelphia is a civic position in the City of Philadelphia. The Poet Laureate has been described as an "Ambassador of Poetry". The holder of the position is expected to actively promote literacy and encourage expression in the city. As part of their position, they participate in service work, workshops and readings. One of their commitments is to mentor the Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

References

  1. Paul Millicheap, LinkedIn. Retrieved 15 December 2023
  2. Gilmartin, Sarah (6 April 2016). "Brian Bilston: the Poet Laureate of Twitter". Irish Times . Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  3. "'Poet laureate of Twitter' Brian Bilston: 'I'm still pretty shy and mostly unconfident'". iNews. 11 January 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 Greg Freeman, "Alexa, what's the latest about Brian Bilston, poet laureate of Twitter?", Write Out Loud, 14 January 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2023
  5. 1 2 Connie Cronley, "Light, Bright Verse", LIFE’s Vintage Newsmagazine, August 2022, p.32
  6. Brian Bilston, Bookshop.org. Retrieved 15 December 2023
  7. "Christmas", BrianBilston.com. Retrieved 15 December 2023
  8. "Brian Bilston, the mystery man of poetry, answers our questions", Pan Macmillan, 26 January 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2023
  9. Quinn, Anthony (13 June 2019). "Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston review – a mischievous comic debut". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  10. Thomas-Corr, Johanna (21 July 2019). "Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston review – a spoof too far". The Observer . Retrieved 17 December 2023.