Peter Finch
Photo of Peter Finch reading at the Merlin, Budapest, courtesy of the author.
Shearsman Titles
The Welsh Poems
About the author
Peter Finch is a poet, critic, author and literary entrepreneur living in Cardiff, Wales. From 1975 to 1998 he ran the Arts Council of Wales's specialist Oriel Bookshop in Cardiff. He is now Chief Executive of Academi, the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers. As a writer he works in both traditional and experimental forms. He is best known for his declamatory poetry readings, his creative work based on his native city of Cardiff and his encyclopedic knowledge of the UK poetry publishing scene.
In the sixties and seventies he edited the ground-breaking literary magazine, second aeon, exhibited visual poetry internationally and toured with sound poet Bob Cobbing. In the eighties and nineties he concerned himself with performance poetry, was a founder member of Cardiff's Cabaret 246 and of the trio Horse's Mouth. This was work with props, owing as much to theatre as it did to literature. In the new Millennium he was worked on psychogeographies and alternative guides to his native city of Cardiff. The city has become his obsession.
Today he is much in demand as a reader as well as a lecturer at festivals and venues up and down the country. You can get into Finch's performances. There's little deliberate obscurity. His talks on Cardiff and how it is with urban living are always entertaining. In addition to the readings Finch also delivers a number of presentations on the poetry publishing scene (how to get yourself published – a demystification of the arcane world of books, magazines and the internet), on the history of sound poetry (which features histrionic performances of dada texts and the playing of numerous historical recordings), on the writing of short fiction and on the history of the small press. He works with schools and has led young people's writing squads in co-operation with local authorities.
Peter Finch has published more than 20 books of poetry including Food, Useful & Poems For Ghosts (Seren), Antibodies (Stride), and The Welsh Poems (Shearsman). His New & Selected Later Poems is due from Seren in 2007.
His prose works include a number of critical guides including How To Publish Your Poetry and How To Publish Yourself (Allison & Busby) as well his famous alternative handbooks, guides and literary rambles, Real Cardiff and Real Cardiff Two (Seren). With Grahame Davies he edited the anthology The Big Book of Cardiff (Seren). He is currently editing books for Seren's forthcoming Real Wales series.
Peter Finch compiles the poetry section of Macmillan's annual Writer's Handbook and the self-publishing section for A&C Black's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook. He is a regular book reviewer and writes articles on Cardiff, Wales and the business of poetry. His poetry and criticism is widely published in magazines and anthologies