"In Permission to Breathe, Michael Laskey shows himself to be our poetic Alan Bennett – a genius of, as it were, biscuit barrels and wry grief. Unflinching, subtle, clear, emotionally precise, uncensored, touching, occasionally erotic, particular, these are very, very good poems that should win all the prizes."
Craig Raine
"[he displays] originality of thought and quality of execution."
Robert Potts, The Guardian
Michael Laskey was born in 1944, read English at Cambridge, and taught in Spain and England for ten years. He lives in Suffolk, where he works as a freelance writer, leading workshops with adult groups and in schools. An associate tutor at UEA, he also teaches regularly for the Arvon Foundation and the Open College of the Arts. Well known as a champion of contemporary poetry, he founded the international Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 1989 and directed it through its first decade; and he has co-edited the poetry magazine Smiths Knoll since 1991. He has published two pamphlets – Cloves of Garlic (1988) and In the Fruit Cage (1997) – and two full collections, both Poetry Book Society Recommendations: Thinking of Happiness (Peterloo, 1991) and The Tightrope Wedding (Smith/Doorstop, 1999) which was also shortlisted for the T S Eliot Memorial Prize.
Craig Raine
"[he displays] originality of thought and quality of execution."
Robert Potts, The Guardian
Michael Laskey was born in 1944, read English at Cambridge, and taught in Spain and England for ten years. He lives in Suffolk, where he works as a freelance writer, leading workshops with adult groups and in schools. An associate tutor at UEA, he also teaches regularly for the Arvon Foundation and the Open College of the Arts. Well known as a champion of contemporary poetry, he founded the international Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 1989 and directed it through its first decade; and he has co-edited the poetry magazine Smiths Knoll since 1991. He has published two pamphlets – Cloves of Garlic (1988) and In the Fruit Cage (1997) – and two full collections, both Poetry Book Society Recommendations: Thinking of Happiness (Peterloo, 1991) and The Tightrope Wedding (Smith/Doorstop, 1999) which was also shortlisted for the T S Eliot Memorial Prize.