Neil Astley

Website: http://www.bloodaxebooks.com

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include two poetry collections and several anthologies, including Staying Alive: real poems from unreal times (2002), Pleased to See Me: 69 very sexy poems (2002), Do Not Go Gentle: poems for funerals (2003), Being Alive: the sequel to Staying Alive (2004), Passionfood: 100 Love Poems (2005), Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds [with Pamela Robertson-Pearce] (2007), Earth Shattering: ecopoems (2007) and the DVD-book In Person: 30 Poets filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce (2008). Being Human, the third anthology of the Staying Alive 'trilogy', is due from Bloodaxe in 2011.

He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (Flambard, 2002; Scribner, 2003), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (Flambard, 2005).

He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry and was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books. He lives in Northumberland.

Astley gave a controversial lecture on the state of British poetry – with far-reaching consequences – at StAnza, Scotland's poetry festival, in St Andrews in March 2005.