Christopher Madden / James Byrne
Robert Sheppard has been at the forefront of innovative poetry since the 1980s. From early contact with Bob Cobbing, Robert Creeley, and Lee Harwood, and a rejection of Movement orthodoxy, Sheppard quickly began to form/reform our perceptions of British poetry. This wide-ranging volume celebrates the writings of Sheppard, offering extensive of his work—from poet, to critic, editor, teacher, and inventor. Including contributions from major contemporaries, as well as a new generation of scholarship, The Robert Sheppard Companion situates the remarkable writing life of one of Britain’s most imaginative poets.‘Sheppard has been a champion of British poetry that actively resists the complacent and the convenient, the merely competent. That has meant evading bullies who would “banish us,” to use Dickinson’s phrase. Sheppard’s aesthetic justice has never been just for him; his social imagination is at one with poems, essays, teaching, and editing. His work is restlessly agile, generous at heart.’ —Charles Bernstein, from ‘Preface’ to The Robert Sheppard Companion‘[Sheppard’s] poetry skews language to takes on big themes and his writing can be seen as comprehensive poetic chronicling of our times on an epic scale culminating in his Complete Twentieth Century Blues. Sheppard’s writing is rough, rude, quirky, serious, learned, and never afraid to be humorous. In short it is as irreverent as it is relevant. Finally, his generosity in writing about and promoting the work of others has been unstinting and invaluable, especially in a country which largely chooses to ignore its innovative poets.’ — Geraldine Monk, from ‘The Robert Sheppard Roundtable’‘This book shows how far-reaching and generous Sheppard’s writing life has been. He has argued and sung for the benefit of an entire community, to keep opening the possibilities of poetry itself. He stands and stands up for the breadth and depth and future of modern poetry. He’s written it, written about it, published it; theorized, organised and celebrated. It is not often that innovative practice, political engagement, a thorough knowledge of poetry, and wit are combined in one body of work. But this valuable Companion provides the necessary spread of insights and perspectives to do justice to the extraordinary range of Sheppard’s achievements. And that is some achievement in itself.’ —Peter Hughes 3
