User:The erubescent Adamite/John wedgwood clarke

John Wedgwood Clarke (born 1969) is a Yorkshire-based poet, editor and teacher.

Clarke was born in Cornwall in 1969, grew up in St. Ives and trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and holds a D.Phil. in Modernist poetics from the University of York for his doctoral research on 'Objectivist' poetry, completed in 1999. Clarke remained at the University of York, teaching American Literature part-time. He then researched and directed a multi-disciplinary play that toured the UK through the Arts Council touring programme. In 2001 he became the first reader in residence at the Ilkley Literature Festival and subsequently took over the directorship of Wordquake, the East Riding of Yorkshire's literature development organisation. In 2002 he established the Beverley Literature Festival and in recognition of the importance of work done by Wordquake, the organisation was granted Regularly Funded Status by Art Council, England. John now works part-time for Wordquake and tutors in poetry on the part-time creative writing degree course at the University of Hull. He is also the UK and Ireland poetry editor for Arc Publications

As a poet, Clarke is currently Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences at the University of Hull, Scarborough. His poems have appeared in various publications and competitions, and in 2010 he was shortlisted for the Manchester Poetry Prize. ‘His work is amongst the best to have emerged from new poets in this country over the past two or three years,' remarked the prize's judge, Simon Armitage. He was commended in the 2010 National Poetry Competition for his poem 'Stubble'.

His debut pamphlet, Sea Swim, was published in April 2012 by Valley Press. It follows a recent "invigorating artistic initiative" in Scarborough described by Carol Ann Duffy as a 'simple and simply beautiful idea. Poetry is going down to the sea again.'