Knotbrook Taylor
I have been writing poetry for about fifteen years now. It began with performance poetry which I hawked around folk festivals culminating in a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1993. This created a thirst for more serious writing and I began to read and write poetry. I was at first interested in expressing myself and exploring my inner self but this has moved on towards writing for the pleasure of it; and now, because it's who I am.
I came to this in one seminal moment when I gave some of my work to Stewart Conn. He was very encouraging and the buzz I got from a "published" poet praising my work was all the motivation I needed to pitch me deeper in to poetry. In 1999 I was asked by Stewart to read at the Shore Poets in Edinburgh. I have since studied at Arvon with Liz Lochead and Brian McCabe and continue to learn.
I am a member of the Lemon Tree Writers in Aberdeen, which is a very proactive group that organises events and gives good crit. Over the last five years I have been published in various Scottish literary magazines including Cutting Teeth, Northwords, Pushing Out the Boat, Storm and Poetry Scotland. I won the Ottakars and Faber Fifth Annual Poetry Prize for Aberdeen in 2001. On the way I have learned a lot about writing and made many good friends.
Now Haworth, Catriona and myself are trying to mess with the boundaries of poetry performance... I wonder how our experiment will pan out....
Interests
The hot and the cold part.
Knowing when to finish.
Editing editing editing.
Why can't I use the word fuck in a poem all the time.
What is wrong with block text poems?
Landscape, seascape, peoplescape.
Too many 'the's.
Poems with long titles.
Form rebellion.
What are the rules?
How I can progress if I do not believe in anything.
How I can progress if I am not oppressed?
All the good poets have been... haven't they?
Death.
Mackerel.
A tattoo I saw once.
Clouds.
Time.
Standing to one side...