TALK: ELIZABETH BISHOP'S ANIMALS
Animals appear again and again in Elizabeth Bishop’s work, as subject-matter for whole poems and as vivid extras. Beyond the particularities of their own lives, they seem to suggest ‘an excellent moral lesson’. Oliver Reynolds investigates what they tell us – about themselves, and about Bishop.
Oliver Reynolds was born in 1957 in Cardiff. After a drama degree at the University of Hull, he worked with the National Youth Theatre of Wales and was Assistant to the Director of the Theatre Wales. He won the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition in 1985 and was an Eric Gregory Award winner in 1986. His first collection Skevington’s Daughter was published in 1985 and a further four collections have followed, most recently Hodge (2011) which was shortlisted for the Roland Mathias Prize. more…
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