Innovative Poetry in Britain today

Abstract

Innovative Poetry in Britain has undergone considerable change in how it is published and read in recent years. This article examines Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain’s 1998 introduction to their anthology OTHER: British and Irish Poetry since 1970, to derive concepts useful in surveying the field. These concepts include: the poetics of displacement, the politics of British identity, and the tradition of dissent. The article introduces the work of three innovative poets: Robert Sheppard (b. 1955), Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962) and Andrea Brady (b. 1974), in order to illustrate the dynamic range of this writing.