Staff profile

I completed my PhD on Barry MacSweeney's poetry at Newcastle University in 2009. After that I worked for several years as a freelance writer, reviewing poetry and biography for various newspapers (selected reviews are listed below), and as a tutor for the Arvon Foundation and the Poetry School. I am currently Director of Creative Writing at Durham University. My research interests lie primarily in twentieth- and twenty-first century poetry from the U.K., Ireland, and the U.S. My current research is concerned with the film and TV work of David Lynch.

My first pamphlet of poetry was To Photograph a Snow Crystal (Smith/Doorstop, 2005), and my first full-length book was The Sinking Road (Bloodaxe, 2008). I have also published a chapbook of poems, The Love Darg (Clutag, 2014). My poems and translations have appeared in several anthologies and in newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review, The Rialto, The Times and The Times Literary Supplement. I can be heard reading my poems on the Poetry Archive. I edited a volume of essays, Reading Barry MacSweeney (Bloodaxe, 2013).

• 2018: Editors’ Prize for Reviewing: from the Poetry Foundation of America
• 2016: Judge for the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Awards:
• 2016: Judge for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize:
• 2015: External Examiner for Creative Writing BA and MA programmes: University of Aberdeen.
• 2014: External Examiner for Creative Writing BA and MA programmes: University of Manchester.
• 2011: Arthur Welton Award: from the Arthur Welton Foundation and the Authors’ Foundation.
• 2010: Arts Council Bursary:
• 2009: Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition:
• 2009: The Times Stephen Spender Prize for Translation:
• 2009: Judge for the Basil Bunting Poetry Competition:
• 2009: Writer of the Year: Journal Culture Awards.
• 2008: Glen Dimplex Best First Collection Prize: shortlist.
• 2008: Jerwood-Aldeburgh Best First Collection Prize: shortlist.
• 2005: Poetry Business Prize: judged by Simon Armitage.
• 2004: Andrew Waterhouse Award: from New Writing North.
• 2004: AHRC Doctoral Award (3 years): Newcastle University
• 2003: Eric Gregory Award: from the Society of Authors.

Authored book

• Batchelor, P. (2014). The Love Darg. Clutag Press
• Batchelor, P. (2008). The Sinking Road. Bloodaxe

Chapter in book

• Batchelor, P. (2020). “Forever in Excess”: Barry MacSweeney, Consumerism, and Popular Culture. In W. Görtschacher, & D. Malcolm (Eds.), A Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2010 (535-548). Wiley
• Batchelor, P. (2017). The Great Divide? Post-Confessional and Language Poetry. In E. Spencer-Regan (Ed.), American Poetry Since 1945 (151-168). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-32447-4_9
• Batchelor, P. (2013). False Fathers, Desperate Readers, and the Prince of Sparty Lea. In P. Batchelor (Ed.), Reading Barry MacSweeney (107-130). Bloodaxe Books

Edited book

• Batchelor, P. (Ed.). (2013). Reading Barry MacSweeney. Bloodaxe Books

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Batchelor, P. (2019). On Barry MacSweeney’s Unselected Poems
• Batchelor, P. (2016). Safe from Devaluation (on Jay Bernard, Polly Clark, John Greening, Fiona Moore, Jocelyn Page, Camille Ralphs, Peter Riley, Richard Scott, Lizzi Thistlethwayte, Gregory Woods)
• Batchelor, P. (2014). Follow the Clue (on Richard Burton and Basil Bunting)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Geoffrey Hill's Measured Words
• Batchelor, P. (2012). The Glass Overflows (on Peter Redgrove)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Boxing and Buns (on T.S. Eliot)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Voice from Tiananmen (on Liu Xiaobo)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Monument to Posterity (on William Wordsworth)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). In the Swim of Life (on Christy Ducker, Emily Hasler, A.B. Jackson, Jane McKie, Tony Williams, Matthew Welton)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). The Alien at the Window (on Jamie McKendrick)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Pain and Labour (on F.T. Prince)
• Batchelor, P. (2012). Greetings to the Solitary (on Robert Fraser and David Gascoyne)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Songs of Love and Politics (on Sorley MacLean)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Root and Branch (on Tomas Transtromer)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Farmers Cross (on Bernard O'Donoghue)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Moments Outside History (on Sean O'Brien)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Peter Reading's Last Collection
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Red House (on Sasha Dugdale)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Sweet Home (on John Burnside)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Not Even a Couch (on C.K. Williams)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Lobe Scarps & Finials (on Geraldine Monk)
• Batchelor, P. (2011). Where the World Ships Landed Poverty (on Les Murray)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). This Must Be Happiness (on Edwin Morgan)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). A Cure for Woodness (on Michael Haslam)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). How Snow Falls (on Craig Raine)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). Cities of Struggle (on Jo Shapcott and Elaine Feinstein)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). A Thunder of Blood (on Sinéad Morrissey)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). Old Times, New Realities (on Seamus Heaney)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). Private Communication (on Roy Fisher)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). Master of Trivia (on Derek Mahon)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). Whale Under Canvas (on Simon Armitage)
• Batchelor, P. (2010). On the Trains (on Patrick McGuinness)
• Batchelor, P. (2009). Return of the Native (on Basil Bunting)
• Batchelor, P. (2009). How to Hum Along with the Greats (interview with Seamus Heaney)
• Batchelor, P. (2009). On Rainer Maria Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
• Batchelor, P. (2009). On Edmund White's biography of Rimbaud
• Batchelor, P. (2009). Scotland’s Best-Loved Poet (interview with Edwin Morgan)
• Batchelor, P. (2009). The Right to 'Speak Proper' (on Tom Leonard)
• Batchelor, P. (2009). On David Constantine, Jane Draycott, Pauline Stainer, Carrie Etter
• Batchelor, P. (2008). On Patience Agbabi, Mick Imlah, Jorie Graham

Other (Print)

• Batchelor, P. (2019). Modern Poetry's Sentimentality Problem (on Niall Campbell and Frederick Seidel)
• Batchelor, P. (2018). Forms and functions (on Danez Smith and Hannah Sullivan)
• Batchelor, P. (2018). Heidegger's Hammer (on Nuar Alsadir and Ahren Warner)
• Batchelor, P. (2018). Loaded with Ore (on Leontia Flynn and Ishion Hutchinson)
• Batchelor, P. (2018). Weight of the Word, Weight of the World (on Geoffrey Hill)
• Batchelor, P. (2017). Raising a Cain (on Emily Berry, Luke Kennard, and Jacob Polley)
• Batchelor, P. (2017). Burden of Proof (on Tara Bergin, Nick Makoha, and Stephen Romer)
• Batchelor, P. (2017). Where It Hurts (on Colette Bryce, Adam O'Riordan, Ocean Vuong)
• Batchelor, P. (2016). Echoes and Answers (on Basil Bunting)
• Batchelor, P. (2015). Praise Songs (on Louise Gluck and Peter Fallon)
• Batchelor, P. (2015). Hide and Seek (on Liz Berry, Vona Groarke, and Rowan Williams)
• Batchelor, P. (2014). How Perilous Is It To Choose? (on Seamus Heaney)
• Batchelor, P. (2014). Style Over Substance (on Ruth Padel, David Harsent, and Michael Longley)
• Batchelor, P. (2014). Robin Robertson, Sailing the Forest: Selected Poems
• Batchelor, P. (2013). Spelling It Out (on Billy Collins and August Kleinzahler)
• Batchelor, P. (2007). On Martin Espada, Durs Grunbein, Mervyn Morris, Togara Muzanenhamo
• Batchelor, P. (2006). On Lorna Goodison, Philip Levine, Dunya Mikhail
• Batchelor, P. (2006). On Penelope Shuttle
• Batchelor, P. (2004). Inside from the Start (on Ken Smith)
• Batchelor, P. (2003). On Barry MacSweeney and Guillaume Apollinaire
• Batchelor, P. (2003). On Barry MacSweeney