Biography & Bibliography
Lawrence Sail was born in London in 1942 and brought up in
Exeter. He read French and German at
St John’s College, Oxford, taught for four years in Kenya, then held various
teaching posts in England before becoming a freelance writer.
He was
chairman of the Arvon Foundation from 1990 to 1994. In 1991 he was programme director of the Cheltenham Festival of
Literature, and a judge for the Whitbread Book of the Year awards. He was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1992,
and an Arts Council writer’s bursary the following year. In August 1993 he undertook a month-long
tour of India for the British Council, for whom he has since worked as visiting
writer and lecturer in various countries, including Bosnia, Colombia, Egypt,
France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine. From 1994 to 1996 he was the British representative on the jury
of the European Literature Prize, and from 2004 to 2007 he was a judge for the
Eric Gregory Awards. In October 1999 he
was a co-director of the 50th Anniversary Cheltenham Festival of
Literature. In 2004 he received a
Cholmondeley Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
OPPOSITE VIEWS* (J.M. Dent & Sons, 1974) ISBN: 0 460 02149 4
THE DROWNED RIVER* (The Mandeville Press, 1978) ISBN: 0 904 53333 6
THE KINGDOM OF ATLAS* (Secker & Warburg, 1980) ISBN: 0 436 44080 6
DEVOTIONS* (Secker & Warburg, 1987) ISBN: 0 436 44081 4
AQUAMARINE* (Gruffyground Press, 1988) No ISBN
OUT OF LAND: New & Selected Poems* (Bloodaxe Books, 1992) ISBN: 1 85224 183 7
BUILDING INTO AIR (Bloodaxe Books, 1995) ISBN: 1 85224 335 X
THE WORLD RETURNING (Bloodaxe Books, 2002) ISBN: 1 85224 591 3
EYE-BABY (Bloodaxe Books, 2006) ISBN 1 85224 729 0
CROSS-CURRENTS: Essays (Enitharmon Books, 2005) ISBN: 1 904634 19 2
SOUTH-WEST REVIEW: A Celebration* (South West Arts, 1985) ISBN: 0 950 6991 4 4
FIRST AND ALWAYS: Poems for Gt Ormond St Children’s Hospital* (Faber & Faber, 1988) ISBN: 0 571 15374 7
THE NEW EXETER BOOK OF RIDDLES** (Enitharmon Press, 1999) ISBN: 1 900564 31 9
LIGHT UNLOCKED: Christmas Card Poems** (Enitharmon Press, 2005) ISBN: 1 904634 18 4
*
Out of print
**with Kevin Crossley-Holland
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