Shukman, Henry

(1962- )

   Born in Oxford, where he still lives, he has worked as a trombonist, a trawler man and a travel writer. The lyrical and deeply affecting, wryly funny or wildly imaginative poems in his first poetry collection, In Doctor No's Garden (2002), range across the globe, from Mexico to Japan, from the United States to Southern England. His prizes include: the Daily Telegraph Arvon (2000); a Times Literary Supplement (2002); the Aldeburgh Festival (2002); the Tabla and Peterloo prizes; writers' awards from the Arts Council of England; and short list for the 2002 Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He reviews for the New York Times Book Review and Times Literary Supplement. Until recently he was poet in residence at the Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Cumbria. Darien Dogs (2005), his first work of fiction, is about a banker getting into hot water while trying to close a deal to finance an oil pipeline across the isthmus of Panama. Some of his poems: "A Glass of Guinness," "Friday on the Wing," "Leaving," "Piano Solo," "'Schmaltz,'" "Snowy Morning," "Storm Lines."

   Sources: Leaving, Poem by Henry Shukman (http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/PBS/pbs_shukman_henry.asp). Snowy Morning, Poem by Henry Shukman (http://www.thepoem.co.uk/poems/shukman.htm). Storm Lines, Poem by Henry Shukman (http://www.tnr.com/directory/keyword.mhtml?kid=93). The Independent Online, May 2004: Darien Dogs, by Henry Shukman (http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article62061.ece). William Wordsworth's Dove Cottage (http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/).