Originally from Merseyside, Alan Buckley moved to Oxford in the mid-1980s to study English Literature and has lived there ever since. Although he began writing poems and short stories at the age of eight, he stopped in his early teens and took up playing bass guitar. He went back to writing in his late 30s and his first pamphlet (Shiver) was a Poetry Book Society Choice in 2009
He won the Wigtown Prize in 2010, and was short-listed for the Picador Prize later that year. He has been highly commended in the Bridport Prize and Forward Prizes, as well as being widely published in magazines and anthologies.
When his second pamphlet, The Long Haul, appeared from HappenStance in 2016, the first printing sold out in a matter of weeks. He was a school writer-in-residence with the charity First Story for eight years, and on the editorial board of ignition press from its inception in 2016 until 2019. He is a psychotherapist and for the last five years has specialised in trauma work with refugees.
Touched is his first full collection.
Poetry publications:
- Touched, HappenStance, 2020
- The Long Haul, HappenStance, 2016
- Shiver, tall-lighthouse, 2009
Links:
Photocredit: Kate Raworth