Leonard, Tom

(1944- )

   Born in Glasgow, he was educated at Lourdes Secondary School and at Glasgow University. He was a member of Philip Hobsbaum's Glasgow writers' group. He has been writer in residence at Bell College of Technology, Renfrew District Libraries and the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde; he was appointed professor of creative writing at Glasgow University. His collection Intimate Voices: Selected Work 1965-1983 (1984) was banned from Central Region school libraries in the same year that it shared the Scottish Book of the Year Award. His poetry makes frequent use of Glaswegian vernacular speech. He edited Radical Renfrew: Poetry from the French Revolution to the First World War (1990). As well as publishing collections of poetry, he has performed sound poetry in festivals in Britain and abroad. Some of his other publications: Six Glasgow Poems, 1969. Poems, 1973. Access to the Silence, 1974. Poems, 1984. Nora's Place and Other Poems 1965-1995, 1996 (Spoken Word CD AKA006CD, AK Press). Some of his poems: "100 Differences Between Poetry and Prose," "Ghostie Men," "The Fair Cop," "The Proxy Badge of Victimhood," "Unrelated Incidents," "Wish You Were Here."

   Sources: Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry. Keith Tuma, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. Biography of Tom Leonard, BBC -Writing Scotland - Scotland's Languages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/writingscotland/learning_journeys/scotlands_languages/tom_leonard). Other British and Irish Poetry Since 1970. Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, eds. Wesleyan University Press, 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). The New British Poetry, 1968-88. Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar and Ken Edwards, eds. Grafton Books, 1989. The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse. Robert Crawford and Mick Imlah, eds. Penguin Books, 2000. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.