Michael Blackburn

Michael Blackburn (born 1954) is a British poet and author.

Michael Blackburn was born in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in 1954.

He has been associated with several literary ventures since the 1970s, as an editor, founder and publisher.

From 1976 to 1978, Blackburn was an editor on Poetry & Audience, the poetry magazine produced by The School of English at the University of Leeds.

Together with the American poet, Michael Coffey, he edited a special translations issue.

He attended Richmond School in Yorkshire, and gained an MA in English Literature at the University of Leeds (1977).

During the early-to-mid-1980s, Blackburn was an editor on Stand Magazine, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

In 1985, he founded the poetry press Jackson's Arm, and in 1986 co-organised the readings at the Morden Tower in Newcastle with the poet Brendan Cleary, including the first Poetry Marathon in the northeast.

In 1987, Blackburn set up a small literary magazine, Harry's Hand, which ran for four issues from London.

In 1988, he became Lincolnshire's first Literature Animateur (Literature Development Worker), a post he held until 1993.

During that period he also established Sunk Island Publishing, which issued Sunk Island Review, an irregular paperback of new poetry, fiction, reviews and translations, plus occasional novels and other titles (such as Radio Activity by John Murray, and Hallowed Ground by Robert Edric).

In 1988, he became a Fellow of the RSA.

He is also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA).

In 1995, he was a Writer in Residence on the Internet, courtesy of Arts Council/Channel, based at Artimedia in Batley, Yorkshire, and produced the hypertext project The Last of Harry.

From 2005 to 2008, Blackburn was the Royal Literary Fund fellow at the University of Lincoln, where he has also been a lecturer in English Literature & Creative Writing.

Blackburn's private papers are in Special Collections at the University Library, Leeds.

Until 2021 he wrote the Currente Calamo column at The Fortnightly Review.