Who Am I

I was born in 1969 and left school at the age of sixteen to work at a printer’s and then in a bookshop. I now divide my time between The Poetry Trust and my work as a freelance poet.

I am currently putting together my first full collection and in the autumn of 2012, I'll be poet-in-residence at the Beccles Festival.

An experienced performer, I'm host of the Short Cuts Cabaret, one of many collaborations with with jazz pianist Maurice Horhut. My one man show, 'Dean's Dad's Ducks', (supported by an Escalator Live Literature and an Arts Council Award) premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Festival in August 2010 and for three years I was poet-in-residence on the Afternoon Show on BBC Radio Norfolk (2007-10).

I've run workshops in prisons, schools and on a NATO base in Germany, for Spread the Word in London, and I'm a regular tutor on schools courses for the Arvon Foundation. In 2009/10 I worked in collaboration with London Sinfonietta on the Surf N Turf Project in three schools in Suffolk, generating words and poems to be set to music. In the summer of 2010 I also led four poetry walks in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of 'The Great Outdoors' project.

I have given many readings across the UK and in the US, including StAnza Poetry Festival, the Dodge Poetry Festival, Poetry at Georgia Tech (Atlanta), Cambridge WordFest, The Wondermentalist Cabaret (Devon), The Troubadour (London) and also in colleges, schools and pubs.

A Jerwood/Arvon Young Poet in 2003, my poems have appeared in many magazines including The North, Poetry Review, The Rialto, Smiths Knoll and The Forward Anthology. I've also been published in the US magazines Greensbro Review and Washington Square. My first pamphlet, 'Irresistible to Women' (2003) was followed by 'Just Our Luck' (2008) - both published by The Garlic Press.

When I was a much younger man I entirely made up a local legend (whilst editing a book of local tales and folklore) which can now be found in the Penguin Book of British Myth & Legend. I'm also probably the first poet to appear on BBC1 reading a poem on the loo (see the Youtube clip).