Graham Allen (born 23 December 1963)[1] is a writer and academic from Cork city, Ireland. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Madhouse System (2016)[2][3] and The One That Got Away (2014).[4][5] He is a former recipient of the Listowel Single Poem Prize, awarded each year at Listowel Writers' Week.[6] As a literary critic, he has published numerous books, including Harold Bloom: Towards a Poetics of Conflict (1994), Intertextuality (2000), and Roland Barthes (2003).[7][8]
Scholarship
Allen is Professor of Literature at University College Cork.[7][8] His book for Routledge's New Critical Idiom series, Intertextuality (2000), had a second edition in 2011 and eight re-prints since first publication.[7] In 2008, he published a book on Frankenstein and a monograph on Mary Shelley.[7] He published a monograph on Harold Bloom, Harold Bloom: Towards a Poetics of Conflict (1994), and later co-edited the Salt Companion to Harold Bloom (2007). Two of his books, Intertextuality (2000) and Roland Barthes (2003), have been translated into Indonesian Japanese, Korean, and Persian.[7][8]
Creative writing
Allen has had two collections of poetry published by New Binary Press, The Madhouse System (2016)[2][3] and The One That Got Away (2014).[4][5] His poetry tends to deal with social and political injustices.[9] Both of his collections have been positively reviewed.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Reviewing Allen's work in Southword journal, Roisin Kelly writes: "These are the words we need to hear in times like these. I am glad that Allen has seen fit to tell us what we are in danger of forgetting."[13] His elegy to David Bowie, included in The Madhouse System, was selected by RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster, as their poem of the week in December 2016.[15]
Allen's first collection of poetry, The One That Got Away, was shortlisted for the 2015 Shine/Strong Award,[16][17] while the manuscript was nominated for Salt Publishing's Crashaw Prize[18][5] and the Munster Literature Centre's Fool For Poetry Prize.[19]
His poetry has appeared in literary journals like Southword, The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Rialto.[20][8] He was the winner of the Listowel Single Poem Prize in 2010.[21]
In 2016, Allen was included in a special issue of the Poetry Ireland Review entitled, The Rising Generation. Edited by Vona Groarke, the issue consisted of a selection of poets considered to be the new voices of literary Ireland.[22] His ‘’Bright Star: Elegy for David Bowie’’ was RTE Poem of the Week in December 2016.[citation needed]
Allen is the author of Holes, a work of digital poetry.[23] Holes is a ten syllable one line per day poem which began on 23 December 2006.[24][25] Also published by New Binary Press, the work has drawn the attention and elicited a positive response from scholars and critics.[26][27] In 2017, Holes released a limited edition print edition of the poem's first decade of lines.[28][29]
In 2017, Allen co-edited The Elysian: Creative Responses (New Binary Press) with fellow Irish author Billy Ramsell, an anthology of works inspired by The Elysian building in Cork city.[30][31] The anthology features a number of prominent figures, including Cónal Creedon, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Frank McDonald, Madeleine D'Arcy, E. R. Murray, and Patrick Cotter.[31]
Personal life
Allen went to Barking Abbey School[citation needed] and then studied at St David's College, Lampeter, the University of Wales, receiving his degree in English in 1985. He obtained his MA and PhD at the University of Sheffield.[7] He tutored at Sheffield and at the University of Cambridge and later was a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Dundee (1990 to 1995).[7] He has been at the University College Cork since 1995, where he is now Professor of Literature.[7][32]