Graham Allen (born 23 December 1963) [1] is a writer and academic from Cork city, Ireland. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Madhouse System (2016) [2] [3] and The One That Got Away (2014). [4] [5] He is a former recipient of the Listowel Single Poem Prize, awarded each year at Listowel Writers' Week. [6] As a literary critic, he has published numerous books, including Harold Bloom: Towards a Poetics of Conflict (1994), Intertextuality (2000), and Roland Barthes (2003). [7] [8]
Allen is Professor of Literature at University College Cork. [7] [8] His book for Routledge's New Critical Idiom series, Intertextuality (2000), had a second edition in 2011 and eight re-prints since first publication. [7] In 2008, he published a book on Frankenstein and a monograph on Mary Shelley. [7] He published a monograph on Harold Bloom, Harold Bloom: Towards a Poetics of Conflict (1994), and later co-edited the Salt Companion to Harold Bloom (2007). Two of his books, Intertextuality (2000) and Roland Barthes (2003), have been translated into Indonesian Japanese, Korean, and Persian. [7] [8]
Allen has had two collections of poetry published by New Binary Press, The Madhouse System (2016) [2] [3] and The One That Got Away (2014). [4] [5] His poetry tends to deal with social and political injustices. [9] Both of his collections have been positively reviewed. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Reviewing Allen's work in Southword journal, Roisin Kelly writes: "These are the words we need to hear in times like these. I am glad that Allen has seen fit to tell us what we are in danger of forgetting." [13] His elegy to David Bowie, included in The Madhouse System, was selected by RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster, as their poem of the week in December 2016. [15]
Allen's first collection of poetry, The One That Got Away, was shortlisted for the 2015 Shine/Strong Award, [16] [17] while the manuscript was nominated for Salt Publishing's Crashaw Prize [18] [5] and the Munster Literature Centre's Fool For Poetry Prize. [19]
His poetry has appeared in literary journals like Southword, The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Rialto. [20] [8] He was the winner of the Listowel Single Poem Prize in 2010. [21]
In 2016, Allen was included in a special issue of the Poetry Ireland Review entitled, The Rising Generation. Edited by Vona Groarke, the issue consisted of a selection of poets considered to be the new voices of literary Ireland. [22] His ‘’Bright Star: Elegy for David Bowie’’ was RTE Poem of the Week in December 2016.[ citation needed]
Allen is the author of Holes, a work of digital poetry. [23] Holes is a ten syllable one line per day poem which began on 23 December 2006. [24] [25] Also published by New Binary Press, the work has drawn the attention and elicited a positive response from scholars and critics. [26] [27] In 2017, Holes released a limited edition print edition of the poem's first decade of lines. [28] [29]
In 2017, Allen co-edited The Elysian: Creative Responses ( New Binary Press) with fellow Irish author Billy Ramsell, an anthology of works inspired by The Elysian building in Cork city. [30] [31] The anthology features a number of prominent figures, including Cónal Creedon, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Frank McDonald, Madeleine D'Arcy, E. R. Murray, and Patrick Cotter. [31]
Allen went to Barking Abbey School[ citation needed] and then studied at St David's College, Lampeter, the University of Wales, receiving his degree in English in 1985. He obtained his MA and PhD at the University of Sheffield. [7] He tutored at Sheffield and at the University of Cambridge and later was a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Dundee (1990 to 1995). [7] He has been at the University College Cork since 1995, where he is now Professor of Literature. [7] [32]