Contemporary Liverpool Poets, Novelists, and Life-Writers

Abstract

This entry is primarily about the postmillennial work of writers associated with Liverpool by birth or by an extended period of residence, but it refers back to earlier work when this seems useful. It includes work which does not necessarily have Liverpool as its primary or ostensible subject matter, but is marked by its author’s past or present affiliation with the City, its cultures, or its institutions (e.g., its universities or writers’ groups). It includes discussion of movements or groups which have Liverpool as just one nodal point among others across the country (such as poets who identify as practitioners of a “disjunctive” or “experimental” poetics). It treats a wide range of writers, some just emerging, and others well established, and in the case of the latter, the emphasis is on their more recent work. The approach used is primarily text-specific, preferring to make points by citing details of particular texts, rather than seeking to establish broad propositions from a theoretical or historical perspective.