Professor Luke Kennard BA Hons, MA, PhD

• BA (Hons) English Literature
• MA Creative Writing
• PhD English and Creative Writing:  ‘The Expasne: Self-Consciousness and The Transatlantic Tendencies of the Prose Poem’ (University of Exeter)

I hold an MA and PhD from the University of Exeter. I have taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level at Exeter and the University of Warwick. I am a poet and novelist, and my 6^th book of poetry Notes on the Sonnets won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2021. My novels The Transition and The Answer to Everything were published by 4^th Estate, Harper Collins in 2017 and 2022 respectively. My debut was shortlisted for the Desmon Elliott Prize. I review fiction and poetry for the London Review of Books, The Telegraph, Poetry Review and the TLS.

Undergraduate

First year

• Creative Writing Foundation
• Contemporary Creative Writing

Second year

• Poetry and Prose Writing
• Drama and Media
• Editing

Third year

• Creative Writing Dissertation

Postgraduate

• Creative Writing Research Skills 1 & 2
• Poem as Story – Story as Poem
• Creative Writing Dissertation

I am currently supervising PhDs in the application of surrealist technique to contemporary poetry; the New York School; a feminist reading of absurdism in 21st-century poetry; Publishing and digital trends in contemporary poetry; Futurism and prize culture.

Find out more - our PhD Creative Writing  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

I write primarily on the prose poem, Absurdist and Surrealist technique in contemporary poetry, Transatlantic influence and publishing trends in contemporary British poetry.

My second collection of poetry, The Harbour Beyond the Movie was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2007, making me the youngest writer to be nominated in the history of the awards. In 2014 I was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets for their once-per-decade list.

I have worked as the pamphlet selector for the Poetry Book Society, 2013 to present. I am currently the Canal Laureate for the Poetry Society and the Canal and River Trust. In 2015 I was sent on a reading tour of Hong Kong and Taiwan through the British Council for Literature.