‘The real life of language’: Encouraging young poets in universities

Abstract

Mark Wormald and Mick Gowar both teach in universities in the city of Cambridge – Mark at Pembroke College, and the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge; Mick at the Cambridge School of Art, and Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University. Both are published poets, and both have spent significant portions of their professional lives teaching poetry, and encouraging the writing of poetry. They have a shared interest in the life and work of the English poet and essayist Ted Hughes, and have collaborated on a number of literary events that have brought together students and staff from both universities. But, as their conversation reveals, the differences in their backgrounds and professional experiences are as marked as the apparent similarities.