Maggie Butt is a British poet and novelist.
Maggie Butt [1] is an ex-journalist and BBC TV producer turned poet and novelist. [2] Her latest poetry collection, everlove, [3] was published in April 2021 by The London Magazine . [4] Her novel, The Prisoner's Wife was published in 2020 [5] under her maiden name Maggie Brookes. [6] It was published by imprints of Penguin Random House in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada [7] and also in the Czech Republic, [8] Poland, [9] Portugal, Mexico [10] and the Netherlands. [11]
She has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow [12] and Associate Professor at Middlesex University, [13] where she taught creative writing for 30 years. [14] Her poetry has been published in international magazines [15] and anthologies and been turned into choreography and a mobile phone app as well as set to music. She has judged many poetry competitions. [16] [17]
After completing an English degree, Maggie (then Brookes) became a newspaper reporter at the Kingsbridge Gazette , and Hendon Times moving to BBC TV as a documentary writer, producer and director. [18] [19] [20] She later returned to her first love of poetry and fiction, completing a PhD in creative writing [21] from Cardiff University.
Maggie Butt's first poetry pamphlet, Quintana Roo, was published by Acumen Publications [22] in 2003. Her first full collection of poetry, Lipstick, was published in March 2007 by Greenwich Exchange; [23] a launch event was held at Keats House in Hampstead, North London. Her edited collection of essays, Story - The Heart of the Matter, was also published by Greenwich Exchange in October 2007. [24] An e-book and MP3, "I Am The Sphinx", were published by Snakeskin online poetry journal in 2009. [25] Her collection of short poems, "petite", was published by Hearing Eye in 2010, and turned into a dance piece "Ashes" by choreographer Dr Lesley Main.
Ally Pally Prison Camp, published in June 2011 by Oversteps Books, [26] charts the use of Alexandra Palace in North London as a 'concentration camp' for civilian enemy aliens during the First World War. It tells the story of the internees through black and white photographs, the paintings of internee George Kenner, extracts from memoirs and letters, and Maggie Butt's own poems. [27] The poems and stories from Ally Pally Prison Camp have been recorded and brought alive for visitors to Alexandra Palace in a locative mobile phone app called Time Stood Still produced by Dr Helen Bendon.
Sancti Clandestini - Undercover Saints, published November 2012 by Ward-Wood Publications, [28] is a fully illustrated poetry collection, which proposes some alternative, imaginary saints, including the Patron Saints of liars, looters, rank outsiders, compulsive hoarders, old dogs and infidel girls. These undercover Patron Saints were illustrated by the staff and students of Middlesex University's BA Hons Illustration course, from famous and established artists to emerging talents.'If the proof of a poem is in the richness of response it provokes, the illustrations here are that response made visible - a testimony to the subtle layers in this tender but incisive poetry.' Philip Gross
Degrees of Twilight [29] was published by The London Magazine in July 2015. These poems use history, memory, work and travel as lenses to examine the inevitable pains and sharp pleasures at the heart of our transient lives.
Dr Maggie Butt was Chair of the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) from 2007-2012, and founding Principal Editor of the peer reviewed journal Writing in Practice. [30]
Maggie Butt lives in North London. She is married with two grown-up daughters.
Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the largest concentration of Hasidic Jews in Europe.
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.
Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Originally built by John Johnson and Alfred Meeson, it opened in 1873 but following a fire two weeks after its opening, was rebuilt by Johnson. Intended as "The People's Palace" and often referred to as "Ally Pally", its purpose was to serve as a public centre of recreation, education and entertainment; North London's counterpart to the Crystal Palace in South London.
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Patience Agbabi FRSL is a British poet and performer who emphasizes the spoken word. Although her poetry hits hard in addressing contemporary themes, it often makes use of formal constraints, including traditional poetic forms. She has described herself as "bicultural" and bisexual. Issues of racial and gender identity feature in her poetry. She is celebrated "for paying equal homage to literature and performance" and for work that "moves fluidly and nimbly between cultures, dialects, voices; between page and stage." In 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Charlton Brooker is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show and Nathan Barley.
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 2007 to 2009. He won the 2023 PEN Pinter Prize, awarded by English PEN, for his "fearless" body of work.
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The Church Times is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays.
Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo is a British author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to hold the role since it was founded in 1820.
Angela Topping is an English poet, literary critic and author. She has published eight solo poetry collections: Dandelions for Mothers' Day, The Fiddle (1999), The Way We Came (2007), The New Generation, I Sing of Bricks, Paper Patterns, Letting Go and The Five Petals of Elderflower.
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Mazhar Majeed is a British sporting agent and runs a Talent Management Agency, Star People which is in the business of managing brands, film and TV personalities and sporting athletes. In 2022, Mazhar Majeed became the manager for two time World Boxing Champion, Amir Iqbal Khan. He additionally organized the fight between Amir Khan and Kell Brook on February 18, 2022. Earlier, he came under police investigation in 2010 following reports of cricket 'match fixing' after a News of the World sting operation. On Saturday 28 August 2010, he was arrested by Scotland Yard for allegedly fixing a Test match between England and Pakistan in Lord's. On 3 November 2011, Majeed was given a prison sentence of 32 months on convictions of "conspiracy to make corrupt payments" and "conspiracy to allow others to cheat at gambling," to run concurrently.
Shelagh Delaney FRSL was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, A Taste of Honey (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war British woman playwright".
George Kenner was a German artist. He made 110 paintings and drawings during the First World War while interned as a German civilian internee in Great Britain and the Isle of Man.
Heather Phillipson is a British artist working in a variety of media including video, sculpture, music, large-scale installations, online works, text and drawing. She is also an acclaimed poet whose writing has appeared widely online, in print and broadcast. Her work has been presented at major venues internationally and she has received multiple awards for her artwork, videos and poetry. She is nominated for the Turner Prize 2022.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year is an annual astronomy photography competition and exhibition that is organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
Mario Petrucci is a British poet, literary translator, educator and broadcaster. He was born in Lambeth, London and trained as a physicist at Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge, later completing a PhD in vacuum crystal growth at University College London. He is also an ecologist, having a BA in Environmental Science from Middlesex University. Petrucci was the first poet to be resident at the Imperial War Museum and with BBC Radio 3. He has broadcast widely on radio, including BBC Radio’s Kaleidoscope, London Nights, Sunday Feature, Night Waves, The Verb and BBC World Service, as well as on BBC TV.
Margaret Adela Miriam Carver DL is an English businesswoman. She is currently Deputy Chairman of Ofcom, and Chair of The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal. She was Interim Chairman of Ofcom between January 2021 and April 2022, and the first woman Chairman of ITN, leading horseracing organisation the RCA, and the British Board of Film Classification.