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Michael Symmons Roberts

February 27, 2023

Michael Symmons Roberts FRSL (born 1963 in Preston, Lancashire) is a British poet.

He has published eight collections of poetry, all with Cape (Random House), and has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, as well as major prizes from the Arts Council and Society of Authors. He has been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. He has also written novels, libretti and texts for oratorios and song cycles. He regularly writes and presents documentaries and dramas for broadcasting and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Life and career

Michael Symmons Roberts spent his childhood in Lancashire before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early '70s. He went to comprehensive school in Newbury, then to Regent's Park College, Oxford to read Philosophy and Theology. After graduating, he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989. He moved with the BBC to London, then to Manchester, initially in radio, then as a documentary filmmaker. His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion and Ethics, before he left the BBC to focus on writing.

Symmons Roberts' family was passively secular, but in his early teens he became a thoroughgoing atheist. When he gained a place at Oxford, this led him to change his course to Theology and philosophy, and his college to a Christian one, simply so that he could talk believers out of their faith. But things did not go according to plan: "As university went on I got deeply into philosophy — and the philosophy completely undermined my atheism, by making me realize that there was no overarching objectivity, no Dawkinsian bedrock of common sense if you strip everything away. I realized that atheism was just as culturally conditioned as being a Catholic."[1]

The Oxford way of teaching, with its deconstructing, analytical approach, proved fatal, he says, to his assumption as "a naively dogmatic young atheist ... that atheism is exactly the same as 'common sense' or objectivity. I'm not saying that in psychological terms we can't be objective. I just mean that there is no framework of thought that can be completely objective. I have exactly the same problem with unquestioning religious dogmatism."[1]

A convert to Roman Catholicism, Symmons Roberts has been described by Jeanette Winterson as "a religious poet for a secular age", and by Les Murray as "a poet for the new chastened, unenforcing age of faith that has just dawned". Miguel Cullen described his " millimetric adjective, the air-tight, wool-swaddled image, and that child's forensic perception, (that) he never grew out of".[2] Alan Brownjohn wrote that his "religious poems ... seem designed for an age of doubt and DNA".[3] Although rooted in the English lyric tradition, his work draws on the language of science (especially genetics and genomics), theology and philosophy.

Work

His fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for best collection, and the Griffin Poetry Prize. He had previously received the Society of Authors' Gregory Award for British poets under 30 and the K Blundell Trust Award, and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon. In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the English Association, for services to the language arts. In 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

His sixth collection, Drysalter won the 2013 Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.

His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions, song cycles, music theatre works and a new opera for the Welsh National Opera, The Sacrifice, which won the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

His work for radio includes 'A Fearful Symmetry' – for Radio 4 – which won the Sandford St Martin Prize, 'Soldiers in the Sun' – for Radio 3 – which won the Clarion Award, and 'Last Words' commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. His first novel, Patrick's Alphabet, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006, and his second, Breath, in 2008. He is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University and a trustee of the Arvon Foundation. He has judged many poetry awards including the Forward Prizes (twice), the Eliot Prize and the Arvon International Poetry Prize.

Awards and honours

Won


Shortlisted

Works

Books

  • Soft Keys, (Secker and Warburg, 1993). ISBN 0-436-41988-2
  • Raising Sparks, (Jonathan Cape, 1999). ISBN 0-224-05902-5
  • Burning Babylon, (Jonathan Cape, 2001). ISBN 0-224-06185-2
  • Lime kilns, (Redundant Press, 2002). Limited edition
  • Her Maker's Maker, (Phoenix Poetry Pamphlets, 2002). Limited edition
  • Corpus, (Jonathan Cape, 2004) (winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award). ISBN 0-224-07342-7
  • The Miracles of Jesus, (Lion Hudson, 2006). ISBN 0-7459-5194-5. Official tie-in to TV series
  • Patrick's Alphabet, (Jonathan Cape, 2006). ISBN 0-224-07596-9
  • Breath, (Jonathan Cape, 2008). ISBN 978-0-224-07802-3
  • The Half Healed, (Jonathan Cape, 2008). ISBN 978-0-224-08567-0
  • Edgelands: Journeys into England's True Wilderness (with Paul Farley), (Jonathan Cape, 2011). ISBN 978-0-224-08902-9
  • Drysalter, (Jonathan Cape, 2013) (winner of the 2013 Costa Poetry Award). ISBN 978-0-22409359-0
  • Selected Poems, (Jonathan Cape, 2016) ISBN 978-1-910-70242-0
  • Deaths of the Poets, (with Paul Farley), (Jonathan Cape, 2017). ISBN 978-0-224-09754-3
  • Mancunia, (Jonathan Cape, 2017) ISBN 978-1-91121-429-8
  • Takk, (Illustrations by Jake Attree. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry, 2020)
  • Ransom, (Jonathan Cape, 2021) ISBN 978-1-787-33312-3

Selected libretti

  • Clemency (opera) [Royal Opera House][Scottish Opera][Boston Lyric Opera] (composer James MacMillan) (nominated for Olivier Award 2012)
  • The Sleeper (opera) [Welsh National Opera] (composer Stephen Deazley)
  • The Sacrifice [Welsh National Opera] (composer James MacMillan) (winner of RPS Award 2008)
  • Parthenogenesis [widely performed in UK & abroad] (composer James MacMillan)
  • The Birds of Rhiannon [BBC Proms commission] (composer James MacMillan)
  • Quickening [BBC Proms commission] (composer James MacMillan)
  • Raising Sparks [Nash Ensemble commission] (composer James MacMillan)
  • Sun Dogs [3 Choirs Festival commission] (composer James MacMillan)
  • Chosen (composer James MacMillan)

Selected broadcast work

  • BBC Radio 3 interview and reading for – 'Northern Drift' – 2022
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama – 'Brimstone' – for 'Afternoon Play' – 2000
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama – 'Cleaning the Pipes' – for 'Fact to Fiction' – 2006
  • BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama – 'Soldiers in the Sun' – 2007
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama – 'Worktown' – for 'Afternoon Play' – 2008
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama – 'Breath'- adaptation of MSR's novel for 'Friday Play' – 2008
  • BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama – 'Idylls of the King' – adaptation of Tennyson poem – 2009
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama – 'A Man in Pieces' – for 'Afternoon Play' – 2010
  • BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama – 'Migrant Mother' – 2010
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'Last Words' – poem to mark 1st Anniversary of 9/11, performed by Sir Antony Sher, with music by John Harle.
  • BBC Radio 4 / World Service commissioned poem for Hiroshima Day – 'A Fearful Symmetry.' With Fiona Shaw, Robert Tear and BBC Philharmonic. Music James Whitbourn.
  • BBC Radio 2 commission – 'Behold the Man' – 6 part biography of Jesus. Performed by Derek Jacobi, repeated on BBC World Service.
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'The Wounds' – poem for Good Friday, performed by Simon Russell Beale, with music by James Whitbourn.
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'The Hurricane' – poem for Pentecost, performed by Fiona Shaw, with music by James Whitbourn.
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem – 'Crossing the Dark Sea' with composer James Whitbourn, to mark D-Day anniversary. With Christopher Eccleston and Katherine Jenkins.
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem – 'White Nights'
  • BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem for 'Today' programme on National Poetry Day.
  • BBC Radio 2 commission – 'Anno Domini' – 11 part history of Christianity in Britain, performed by Derek Jacobi.
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'A Higher Place' – writer and presenter of series on Sacred Mountains of the world.
  • BBC Radio 2 commission – writer and presenter of 'Landscape of Remembrance', on the poets of the First World War.
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'Hound of Heaven' – on the Victorian poet Francis Thompson.
  • BBC Radio 2 commission – 'The Good Book' – 6 part series on the Bible.
  • BBC Radio 4 commission – 'The Chair' – on Welsh poetry.
  • BBC Radio 4 writer & presenter of 'The Cross' documentary.
  • BBC Radio 2 writer of six part series 'Sacred Nation' – a history of multi-faith Britain, presented by Christopher Eccleston
  • BBC Radio 3 writer and presenter of 'Elegy' – feature about the history and meaning of the poetic elegy.
  • BBC Radio 3 writer and presenter of 'Utopian Pessimist' – feature about Simone Weil.

References

  1. ^ a b Cullen, Miguel (25 June 2010). "Michael Symmons Roberts" 15 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Cullen, Miguel (25 June 2010). "Philosophy Undermined My Atheism". The Catholic Herald.
  3. ^ Brownjohn, Alan (9 January 2005). "Poetry: There's reason to their rhymes"[permanent dead link]. The Sunday Times.
  4. ^ "Former winners recapture Costa prize". BBC News. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  5. ^ Mark Brown (26 November 2013). "Costa book awards 2013: late author on all-female fiction shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  6. ^ "T S Eliot Prize shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 15 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

  • Michael Symmons Roberts author Web site
  • Profile and poems written and audio at the Poetry Archive
  • Poetry International Profile
  • British Council – Contemporary Writers: Michael Symmons Roberts
  • Wall Street Journal interview
  • Griffin Poetry Prize biography
  • CBC Radio's Tapestry interview with Michael Symmons Roberts
  • New coup for Writing School – MMU news item

February 27, 2023
michael, symmons, roberts, frsl, born, 1963, preston, lancashire, british, poet, published, eight, collections, poetry, with, cape, random, house, forward, prize, costa, book, award, whitbread, prize, poetry, well, major, prizes, from, arts, council, society, . Michael Symmons Roberts FRSL born 1963 in Preston Lancashire is a British poet He has published eight collections of poetry all with Cape Random House and has won the Forward Prize the Costa Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry as well as major prizes from the Arts Council and Society of Authors He has been shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Ondaatje Prize He has also written novels libretti and texts for oratorios and song cycles He regularly writes and presents documentaries and dramas for broadcasting and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University Contents 1 Life and career 2 Work 3 Awards and honours 3 1 Won 3 2 Shortlisted 4 Works 4 1 Books 4 2 Selected libretti 4 3 Selected broadcast work 5 References 6 External linksLife and career EditMichael Symmons Roberts spent his childhood in Lancashire before moving south with his family to Newbury in Berkshire in the early 70s He went to comprehensive school in Newbury then to Regent s Park College Oxford to read Philosophy and Theology After graduating he trained as a newspaper journalist before joining the BBC in Cardiff as a radio producer in 1989 He moved with the BBC to London then to Manchester initially in radio then as a documentary filmmaker His last job at the corporation was as Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Religion and Ethics before he left the BBC to focus on writing Symmons Roberts family was passively secular but in his early teens he became a thoroughgoing atheist When he gained a place at Oxford this led him to change his course to Theology and philosophy and his college to a Christian one simply so that he could talk believers out of their faith But things did not go according to plan As university went on I got deeply into philosophy and the philosophy completely undermined my atheism by making me realize that there was no overarching objectivity no Dawkinsian bedrock of common sense if you strip everything away I realized that atheism was just as culturally conditioned as being a Catholic 1 The Oxford way of teaching with its deconstructing analytical approach proved fatal he says to his assumption as a naively dogmatic young atheist that atheism is exactly the same as common sense or objectivity I m not saying that in psychological terms we can t be objective I just mean that there is no framework of thought that can be completely objective I have exactly the same problem with unquestioning religious dogmatism 1 A convert to Roman Catholicism Symmons Roberts has been described by Jeanette Winterson as a religious poet for a secular age and by Les Murray as a poet for the new chastened unenforcing age of faith that has just dawned Miguel Cullen described his millimetric adjective the air tight wool swaddled image and that child s forensic perception that he never grew out of 2 Alan Brownjohn wrote that his religious poems seem designed for an age of doubt and DNA 3 Although rooted in the English lyric tradition his work draws on the language of science especially genetics and genomics theology and philosophy Work EditHis fourth book of poetry Corpus was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize the Forward Prize for best collection and the Griffin Poetry Prize He had previously received the Society of Authors Gregory Award for British poets under 30 and the K Blundell Trust Award and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize for his 2001 collection Burning Babylon In 2007 he received a major Arts Council Writers Award In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the English Association for services to the language arts In 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature His sixth collection Drysalter won the 2013 Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize His continuing collaboration with composer James MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions song cycles music theatre works and a new opera for the Welsh National Opera The Sacrifice which won the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Award His work for radio includes A Fearful Symmetry for Radio 4 which won the Sandford St Martin Prize Soldiers in the Sun for Radio 3 which won the Clarion Award and Last Words commissioned by Radio 4 to mark the first anniversary of 9 11 His first novel Patrick s Alphabet was published by Jonathan Cape in 2006 and his second Breath in 2008 He is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University and a trustee of the Arvon Foundation He has judged many poetry awards including the Forward Prizes twice the Eliot Prize and the Arvon International Poetry Prize Awards and honours EditWon Edit Eric Gregory Award 1988 Poetry Book Society Recommendation 2001 Sandford St Martin Premier Award 2002 K Blundell Trust Award 2003 Jerusalem Trust Award 2004 Poetry Book Society Recommendation 2004 Whitbread Prize for Poetry 2004 Arts Council Writers Award 2007 Clarion Award for Radio Drama 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards with James MacMillan 2008 Jerwood Award for Non Fiction with Paul Farley 2009 Fellowship of the English Association 2012 Foyles Best Book of Ideas Award with Paul Farley 2012 Poetry Book Society Choice 2013 Forward Poetry Prize Best Poetry Collection of the Year 2013 Costa Book Award in Poetry for Drysalter 2013 4 5 Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature 2014 Poetry Book Society Special Commendation 2016 Poetry Book Society Recommendation 2017 Poetry Book Society Recommendation 2021 Shortlisted Edit T S Eliot Prize 2001 T S Eliot Prize 2004 Forward Poetry Prize Best Poetry Collection of the Year 2004 Griffin International Poetry Prize 2005 Mental Health Award for Radio Drama 2008 Olivier Awards with James MacMillan 2012 Ondaatje Prize with Paul Farley 2012 T S Eliot Prize 2013 BBC Audio Drama Awards 2014 Best Single Drama for The Sleeper BBC Audio Drama Awards 2015 Best Single Drama for Men Who Sleep in Cars on BBC Radio 4 Tinniswood Award 2015 Best Radio Drama Script for Men Who Sleep in Cars on BBC Radio 4 Portico Prize 2015 T S Eliot Prize 2017 T S Eliot Prize 2021 6 Works EditBooks Edit Soft Keys Secker and Warburg 1993 ISBN 0 436 41988 2 Raising Sparks Jonathan Cape 1999 ISBN 0 224 05902 5 Burning Babylon Jonathan Cape 2001 ISBN 0 224 06185 2 Lime kilns Redundant Press 2002 Limited edition Her Maker s Maker Phoenix Poetry Pamphlets 2002 Limited edition Corpus Jonathan Cape 2004 winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award ISBN 0 224 07342 7 The Miracles of Jesus Lion Hudson 2006 ISBN 0 7459 5194 5 Official tie in to TV series Patrick s Alphabet Jonathan Cape 2006 ISBN 0 224 07596 9 Breath Jonathan Cape 2008 ISBN 978 0 224 07802 3 The Half Healed Jonathan Cape 2008 ISBN 978 0 224 08567 0 Edgelands Journeys into England s True Wilderness with Paul Farley Jonathan Cape 2011 ISBN 978 0 224 08902 9 Drysalter Jonathan Cape 2013 winner of the 2013 Costa Poetry Award ISBN 978 0 22409359 0 Selected Poems Jonathan Cape 2016 ISBN 978 1 910 70242 0 Deaths of the Poets with Paul Farley Jonathan Cape 2017 ISBN 978 0 224 09754 3 Mancunia Jonathan Cape 2017 ISBN 978 1 91121 429 8 Takk Illustrations by Jake Attree Published by Andrew J Moorhouse Fine Press Poetry 2020 Ransom Jonathan Cape 2021 ISBN 978 1 787 33312 3Selected libretti Edit Clemency opera Royal Opera House Scottish Opera Boston Lyric Opera composer James MacMillan nominated for Olivier Award 2012 The Sleeper opera Welsh National Opera composer Stephen Deazley The Sacrifice Welsh National Opera composer James MacMillan winner of RPS Award 2008 Parthenogenesis widely performed in UK amp abroad composer James MacMillan The Birds of Rhiannon BBC Proms commission composer James MacMillan Quickening BBC Proms commission composer James MacMillan Raising Sparks Nash Ensemble commission composer James MacMillan Sun Dogs 3 Choirs Festival commission composer James MacMillan Chosen composer James MacMillan Selected broadcast work Edit BBC Radio 3 interview and reading for Northern Drift 2022 BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama Brimstone for Afternoon Play 2000 BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama Cleaning the Pipes for Fact to Fiction 2006 BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama Soldiers in the Sun 2007 BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama Worktown for Afternoon Play 2008 BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama Breath adaptation of MSR s novel for Friday Play 2008 BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama Idylls of the King adaptation of Tennyson poem 2009 BBC Radio 4 commissioned drama A Man in Pieces for Afternoon Play 2010 BBC Radio 3 commissioned drama Migrant Mother 2010 BBC Radio 4 commission Last Words poem to mark 1st Anniversary of 9 11 performed by Sir Antony Sher with music by John Harle BBC Radio 4 World Service commissioned poem for Hiroshima Day A Fearful Symmetry With Fiona Shaw Robert Tear and BBC Philharmonic Music James Whitbourn BBC Radio 2 commission Behold the Man 6 part biography of Jesus Performed by Derek Jacobi repeated on BBC World Service BBC Radio 4 commission The Wounds poem for Good Friday performed by Simon Russell Beale with music by James Whitbourn BBC Radio 4 commission The Hurricane poem for Pentecost performed by Fiona Shaw with music by James Whitbourn BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem Crossing the Dark Sea with composer James Whitbourn to mark D Day anniversary With Christopher Eccleston and Katherine Jenkins BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem White Nights BBC Radio 4 commissioned poem for Today programme on National Poetry Day BBC Radio 2 commission Anno Domini 11 part history of Christianity in Britain performed by Derek Jacobi BBC Radio 4 commission A Higher Place writer and presenter of series on Sacred Mountains of the world BBC Radio 2 commission writer and presenter of Landscape of Remembrance on the poets of the First World War BBC Radio 4 commission Hound of Heaven on the Victorian poet Francis Thompson BBC Radio 2 commission The Good Book 6 part series on the Bible BBC Radio 4 commission The Chair on Welsh poetry BBC Radio 4 writer amp presenter of The Cross documentary BBC Radio 2 writer of six part series Sacred Nation a history of multi faith Britain presented by Christopher Eccleston BBC Radio 3 writer and presenter of Elegy feature about the history and meaning of the poetic elegy BBC Radio 3 writer and presenter of Utopian Pessimist feature about Simone Weil References Edit a b Cullen Miguel 25 June 2010 Michael Symmons Roberts Archived 15 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine Cullen Miguel 25 June 2010 Philosophy Undermined My Atheism The Catholic Herald Brownjohn Alan 9 January 2005 Poetry There s reason to their rhymes permanent dead link The Sunday Times Former winners recapture Costa prize BBC News 6 January 2014 Retrieved 6 January 2014 Mark Brown 26 November 2013 Costa book awards 2013 late author on all female fiction shortlist The Guardian Retrieved 27 November 2013 T S Eliot Prize shortlist announced Books Publishing 15 October 2021 Retrieved 15 October 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link External links EditMichael Symmons Roberts author Web site Profile and poems written and audio at the Poetry Archive Poetry International Profile British Council Contemporary Writers Michael Symmons Roberts Wall Street Journal interview Griffin Poetry Prize biography CBC Radio s Tapestry interview with Michael Symmons Roberts New coup for Writing School MMU news item Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Michael Symmons Roberts amp oldid 1101211612, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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