Remembering Carmen

Nicholas Murray is a poet and literary biographer living in Powys. He wrote the first biography of Bruce Chatwin, published by Seren, which was followed by lives of Matthew Arnold, Aldous Huxley, Andrew Marvell and Franz Kafka and biographical studies of the WW1 poets and the nineteenth century British travellers, then latter being re-issued in 2027 by Eland. Two works of fiction, a book on borders and Real Bloomsbury have all been published by Seren. He has published three books of poetry including Elsewhere: Collected Poems in 2022 and over a dozen poetry pamphlets. He won the Basil Bunting Prize in 2015 and is co-publisher of the award-winning Powys-based poetry pamphlet imprint Rack Press. He has enjoyed collaborating as a poet with the Sage Dance Company at the Bloomsbury Festival and with other composers. His 2016 book on borders, Crossings inspired a string quartet by Cheryl Frances Hoad premiered at the Presteigne Festival and he writes the Free Range Writing Substack. His Instagram account is @rackpress. His freelance reviews and essays have appeared in the TLS, LRB, Guardian, Independent, Literary Review, Slightly Foxed, Planet, New Welsh Review and many others. He is currently Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Liverpool John Moores University.