New Forest Sunrise: Mark Lanigan

Welcome to my website. Please stay and browse.

I am a free-lance poet and editor who is happy to consider commissions, readings, talks and interviews for festivals, arts centres, libraries, universities, colleges and schools.

Four collections of my poetry have been published by Bloodaxe Books. The latest, Hyem, came out on 26 October 2017. New Wings: Poems 1977-2007, was a Poetry Book Society recommendation; it includes selections from earlier volumes, Raiding the Borders and The Peepshow Girl.

I have also written about early women poets, Shakespeare and related dramatists, and have edited plays by John Ford and Aphra Behn. My libretto, Beyond Men and Dreams (composer, Bennett Hogg), was performed as part of the Royal Opera House’s Garden Venture and some of my poems have been set to music, most recently by singer-songwriter, Dom Prag. I welcome opportunities to work with musicians and visual artists.

In 2016-2017, I led The Ferry Tales Project (supported with public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England), working with a group of poets, singer-songwriters and a photographer on the Isle of Wight, on ferry routes, and in Solent ports.

I was Hampshire Poet 2018-19. In 2021, I was part of a Royal Literary Fund social sector project with young people and, in 2022, I’m running story and poetry sessions in Southampton for asylum seekers and refugees, supported by the RLF and SWVG .

For news of poetry events in Hampshire and surrounding areas (including mine), check the Hampshire Poetry Hub:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1218059554993090/

For news of my other events, please go to: http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/events or see this website: Recent events & publications