Dalton, Amanda

(1957- )

   She was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, worked in Leicestershire comprehensive schools and as a youth theater leader, then she was a deputy head teacher for five years. She organized writers' courses for four years for the Arvon Foundation at Lumb Bank in West Yorkshire. She also writes plays for stage and radio and is now education director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. How to Disappear, her first poetry book, was published in 1999 and was short listed for the Forward prize for best first collection in 1999. Her radio version of Room of Leaves (a section of How to Disappear) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in autumn 1998 and has been short listed for a Prix Italia award for radio drama. In 2004 she was named in "Next Generation Poets" as one of the 20 most exciting poets. Some of her poems: "Almost Bird," "In Love," "Kitchen Beast," "Nest," "The Dad-Baby."

   Sources: Amada Dalton, Books: Special Reports. Guardian Unlimited (http://books.guardian.co.uk/nextgenerationpoets). New Blood. Neil Astley, ed. Bloodaxe Books, 1999. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). Biography and poems of Amanda Dalton. The Poetry Book Society (http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/PBS/pbs_dalton_amanda.asp).