Tapestry Room, Firth Court (Western Bank), University of Sheffield. 6pm Friday 17th May.

Peter Riley (born 1940) is a contemporary English poet, essayist, and editor. Part-time M.A. thesis on Jack Spicer at the University of Keele, supervised by Roy Fisher. In 1978 he moved to the far, eastern, side of the Peak, getting a stone cottage in a small village called Bolehill which clung to the valley side overlooking the town of Wirksworth. Riley was an editor and major contributor to The English Intelligencer. He is the author of ten books of poetry, and many small-press booklets. He is also the current poetry editor of the Fortnightly Review and a recipient of the Cholmondeley Award in 2012 for “achievement and distinction in poetry”. Publishes also with Sheffield’s Longbarrow Press. His collections include Passing Measures, Selected poems 1966–1996 (Carcanet, 2000), Messenger Street (Poetical Histories, 2001) The Dance at Mociu (Shearsman, 2003), Alstonefield: a poem (Carcanet, 2003), The Day’s Final Balance: uncollected writings 1965–2006 (Shearsman, 2007), The Llyn Writings (Shearsman, 2007), Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), The Derbyshire Poems (Shearsman, 2010), andThe Glacial Stairway (Carcanet, 2011)

David Herd works in the area of modern literature, with emphasis on poetry and its relation to questions in politics and philosophy. His books include All Just (Carcanet, 2012), Enthusiast! Essays on Modern American Literature and John Ashbery and American Poetry. He is currently writing a book on modern poetry and the state of exception, editing a collection of essays on Charles Olson (Contemporary  Olson) and his chapbook, Outwith, will come out soon with Bookthug. His essays and reviews have been widely published in journals, magazines and newspapers. Recent writings on poetry and politics have appeared in PN Review, Parallax and Almost Island. Alongside Simon Smith he has collaborated with both Jack Hues and The-Quartet on the project ‘Rote-Through’, and with Sam Bailey, Evan Parker and Matt Wright on the project ‘Feedback’. He is a co-founder of the Sounds New Poetry festival and currently directs the Centre for Modern Poetry in the School of English.