About David Punter
I am a poet and writer based in Bristol, UK. I have had a long and varied career as an academic, working at universities in England, Scotland, China and Hong Kong (before Hong Kong became part of China!). During all this time, I have written, published and performed poetry, and am now able to devote my energies full-time to poetry.
Interests
As a poet, I am interested in politics and social issues, developing from such masters as W.H. Auden and Adrian Mitchell; but many of my poems add a surreal tinge to the everyday. I am also fascinated by the interplay between poetry and music, and was for a time engaged with two other poets, Gillie Harries and Tim Vosper, and a jazz duo, Jake’n’Charlie, in a venture called Echoes and Edges.
Publications and Performances
I have performed at venues in London (including the Barbican Centre), Norwich, York, Bristol, as well as Denmark and Hong Kong. I have recently been long-listed in the Poetry Society’s Annual Competition, and short-listed for the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize. I have published in magazines such as PN Review, Ariel, Agenda and Encounter, and have also published ten poetry collections, one of the most recent, Ship’s Log, with Bristol Books. In this book I base some of my own poems on excerpts from the passenger records of the voyages of Brunel’s magnificent ship the SS Great Britain, in whose archives I have now been working for some time. It is available from this website or from Amazon at the price of £8.00; but there is also a version including a CD of 24 of the excerpts and poems, which costs £12.00. This year I have published a small pamphlet called Fantasia: Lands of Dream, also available in the usual places.