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Suzanne Batty is a poet based in Manchester, UK. She is
co-editor of
poetry magazine Rain Dog
and is one of the founders of Manchester's A6
poets.
Her new collection The Barking Thing was published
by Bloodaxe
in June 2007.
In 1997 her collection Shrink was a winner in The
Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition. In 1998 she was
shortlisted
for the Trace Write
Out Loud Scheme. In 1999 she was awarded a Writers
Bursuary from the Arts Council to research a long poem and complete
a first
collection. In January 2000 she received an Arts Council Commission to
write a poem for ‘Poems
for the Waiting Room’, a Hyphen-21
project. She has completed her first collection of poems The
Barking
Thing.
Currently she is working on her second collection and a long
poem for theatre. She has many poems
published in anthologies and magazines, and regularly performs her work
in Manchester and further afield.
She teaches creative writing at Sheffield Hallam
University and leads workshops including one for Commonword's Northern
Gay Writers in Manchester.
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Dogs Tell Lies
Who says on some past night
I couldn’t be a small dog
A red dog with yellow eyes.
Hairy as a pasque flower.
Prone to eating sheep
In the small hours.
Having teeth cut out of old
Tin cans, a big mouth.
I bark before I’m spoken to
Scare myself.
I want to be a good dog
Have a happy end. Hold your hand
All night in my rubber mouth.
Eat butterflies.
© Suzanne Batty, 2000
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'I like poetry written with passion
and daring. I like work that takes
risks with itself. I'm drawn to strong images
and emotions although witty and iroinc poems can appeal to me as well.
I read mostly contemporary poetry
although I have a passion for, amongst others, Sylvia
Plath and Spanish-speaking poets Federico
Garcia Lorca
and Pablo Neruda. My favourite contempoary writers include Medbh
McGuckian,
Selima Hill (poem), Alice
Oswald, Les Murray, Kathleen Jamie, and songwriter Elvis
Costello.'
Published Collections
Web Links
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