Roy Fisher

Roy Fisher (born 1930) is a British poet and jazz pianist. He was one of the first British writers to absorb the poetics of William Carlos Williams and the Black Mountain poets into the British poetic tradition. Fisher was a key precursor of the British Poetry Revival.

Fisher was Born in Handsworth, Birmingham and studied at the University of Birmingham. His early work, including "City" (1962), a work in which he applies the lessons of Williams' "Paterson" to the city of Birmingham, was admired in the United States but more or less ignored in his native country.

Fisher finally began to gain recognition in Britain with the publication of "Poems 1955-1980" (1981). Between 1963 and 1971, he worked as Head of English and Drama at Bordesley College of Education. He then moved to the Department of American Studies at Keele University. He retired in 1982, after which he worked as a freelance writer and as a musician.

Fisher's more recent works include the long poem "A Furnace" (1986), "Poems 1955-1987" (1988) and "The Dow Low Drop" (1996).

Outside the mainstream, Fisher is regarded -- by poets such as John Ash, Peter Robinson and critics like Marjorie Perloff -- as one of the most important post-war English poets.

External links

* [http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/fisher.htm Roy Fisher at West Midlands Literary Heritage]
* [http://jacketmagazine.com/01/fisher-iv.html An interview with Roy Fisher]
* [http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/perloff/articles/fisher.html An essay on Fisher by Marjorie Perloff]