Graham Mort
Encyclopedia
Graham Mort 'is acknowledged as one of contemporary verse's most accomplished practitioners'. He is the author of seven volumes of poetry and has written short fiction and radio drama for BBC Radio 4
.
His latest poetry collection Visibility: New and Selected Poems, was published by Seren
in 2007. The Guardian Review of Books comments that it 'perfectly exhibits the blend of formal scrupulousness, sensory evocation and intellectual rigour that has shaped his reputation.'
He received a major Eric Gregory award
from the Society of Authors for his first collection of poems, A Country on Fire and Circular Breathing was a Poetry Book Society recommendation.
Graham won the 2007 Bridport International Short Story Prize
, for his story 'The Prince'. His first collection of short fiction, Touch was published by Seren in 2010 and won the Edge Hill Prize in 2011.
Graham was born in Lancashire and studied English at Liverpool University. He worked as a mill labourer, dairy operative and psychiatric nurse before training as a teacher. He taught in schools, colleges, prisons, special education and psychiatric units before becoming a freelance writer. He gained a doctorate from the University of Glamorgan and is a Distance Learning and eLearning specialist. He has been the Director of Studies for the Open College of the Arts and is now a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University
where his academic research ranges from contemporary fiction and poetry and emergent African writing
and narratives of diaspora
to eLearning and literature development project design. He convenes the distance learning MA with Lee Horsley and is director of the PhD programme in Creative Writing at Lancaster.
in 2001. By 2003, the project had developed into a major British Council/Lancaster University partnership involving Uganda, Kenya
, Zambia
, Zimbabwe
, Cameroon
, Nigeria
, Ghana
, Africa South Africa
and Malawi
.
Crossing Borders employed a team of 25 writing mentors throughout the UK and reached over 300 African writers, bringing a budget of £375,000 to the University for this Third Mission activity. The Beyond Borders pan-African literature festival in Uganda in October 2005 involved writers from the UK and 17 African countries.
The mentoring project was laid down in April 2006, but the website remains active and publishes a quarterly online magazine of new African writing. Recent achievements for Crossing Borders participants include Monica Arac de Nyeko of Uganda winning the Caine Prize
for African Writing 2007 and Ellen Banda-Aaku, Zambia, winning the Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
The stories focused on topical themes and were broadcast on Sanyu FM (Kampala) as the Under the Sun series with live audience reaction to the stories. Graham Mort devised and produced the series with Faith Kinani of Sanyu FM. Kate Horsley was the project researcher and also designed online support systems.
Each whole programme was mounted on the Crossing Borders site as podcasts intended to reach a global audience. Radiophonics has now been commissioned as a major project in Nigeria and Uganda, commencing in September 2007.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
His latest poetry collection Visibility: New and Selected Poems, was published by Seren
Seren Press
Seren Books is a small independent publisher of English language books by authors living in Wales. Seren's aim is to bring Welsh literature to a wider audience. The press takes its name from the Welsh word for 'star'....
in 2007. The Guardian Review of Books comments that it 'perfectly exhibits the blend of formal scrupulousness, sensory evocation and intellectual rigour that has shaped his reputation.'
He received a major Eric Gregory award
Eric Gregory Award
The Eric Gregory Award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30 on submission. The awards are up to a sum value of £24000 annually....
from the Society of Authors for his first collection of poems, A Country on Fire and Circular Breathing was a Poetry Book Society recommendation.
Graham won the 2007 Bridport International Short Story Prize
Bridport prize
The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition was founded in 1973 and has steadily grown in stature and prestige. Today many thousands of entries are received from over 80 countries. In many cases a win in the Bridport Prize has led to further successes and helped to launch new...
, for his story 'The Prince'. His first collection of short fiction, Touch was published by Seren in 2010 and won the Edge Hill Prize in 2011.
Graham was born in Lancashire and studied English at Liverpool University. He worked as a mill labourer, dairy operative and psychiatric nurse before training as a teacher. He taught in schools, colleges, prisons, special education and psychiatric units before becoming a freelance writer. He gained a doctorate from the University of Glamorgan and is a Distance Learning and eLearning specialist. He has been the Director of Studies for the Open College of the Arts and is now a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...
where his academic research ranges from contemporary fiction and poetry and emergent African writing
African literature
African literature refers to literature of and from Africa. As George Joseph notes on the first page of his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, while the European perception of literature generally refers to written letters, the African concept includes oral...
and narratives of diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
to eLearning and literature development project design. He convenes the distance learning MA with Lee Horsley and is director of the PhD programme in Creative Writing at Lancaster.
Crossing Borders
In 2001, Graham designed and led the Crossing Borders scheme. The project was piloted in UgandaUganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
in 2001. By 2003, the project had developed into a major British Council/Lancaster University partnership involving Uganda, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Africa South Africa
South
South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the bottom side of a map is south....
and Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
.
Crossing Borders employed a team of 25 writing mentors throughout the UK and reached over 300 African writers, bringing a budget of £375,000 to the University for this Third Mission activity. The Beyond Borders pan-African literature festival in Uganda in October 2005 involved writers from the UK and 17 African countries.
The mentoring project was laid down in April 2006, but the website remains active and publishes a quarterly online magazine of new African writing. Recent achievements for Crossing Borders participants include Monica Arac de Nyeko of Uganda winning the Caine Prize
Caine Prize
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of the late Sir Michael...
for African Writing 2007 and Ellen Banda-Aaku, Zambia, winning the Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
Radiophonics
Graham devised Radiophonics as legacy activity to Crossing Borders. It was piloted in Uganda in autumn 2006, when 8 Crossing Borders writers took part in workshop and online mentoring to produce short stories for radio.The stories focused on topical themes and were broadcast on Sanyu FM (Kampala) as the Under the Sun series with live audience reaction to the stories. Graham Mort devised and produced the series with Faith Kinani of Sanyu FM. Kate Horsley was the project researcher and also designed online support systems.
Each whole programme was mounted on the Crossing Borders site as podcasts intended to reach a global audience. Radiophonics has now been commissioned as a major project in Nigeria and Uganda, commencing in September 2007.
Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research
Graham is the director of Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research (CTWR) which was launched at Lancaster University in 2007 in order to create a transnational and interdisciplinary environment that will promote the study of creative writing across cultures. The Centre brings together a number of intercultural research projects: Crossing Borders, Moving Manchester, Radiophonics and Trans-Scriptions.External links
- Bridport International Short Story Prize
- Guardian Review of Visibility: Sex, death and foxes
- Visibility: New and Selected Poems
- Articles on Africa
- Radiophonics
- Crossing Borders
- Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research
- Moving Manchester
- Lancaster University
- Graham's profile at Contemporary Writers
- Graham's Books on Amazon