Staff Profile
Dr John Challis
Lecturer in Creative Writing
I am a poet, editor and teacher. I have published poetry, essays, and reviews widely, and have written for the stage. I am the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an Author’s Foundation Grant from the Society of Authors.
My first collection of poetry, The Resurrectionists (Bloodaxe, 2021), was a poetry book of the month in The Guardian and highly commended in the 2021 Forward Prizes for Poetry. I have published 2 pamphlets: The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017), a 2019 New Writing North Read Regional Title, and Hallsong (New Writing North, 2022), written while I was writer in residence at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall in 2022/23.
I hold a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, where I previously worked as a Research Associate, Teaching Fellow and Associate Lecturer, and contributed to the management of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts and the Newcastle Poetry Festival. My PhD was a creative and critical exploration of film noir and the 'poem noir'.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – j.challis@yorksj.ac.uk
Teaching
In 2023/24 I will teach on the following modules:
- Adaptations
- Critical Approaches to Creative Writing
- Introduction to Literary Studies 2
- Writing to Order
- Working with Words
Research
My research interests include contemporary British, Irish and American poetry; poetry archives; the longer poem and the sequence; poetry that concerns industry, work, employment, jobs and class; and poetry about film noir and cinema.
I’m currently working on a second collection of poems while developing a creative project exploring the renewable energy industry in South East Northumberland, involving several partner organisations.
Publications, Talks and Readings
Books
- The Resurrectionists (Bloodaxe Books, 2021)
Pamphlets
- Hallsong (New Writing North, 2022)
- The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017)
Recent journals
- ‘The Love’, Pratik: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing (2023)
- ‘Night God’ and ‘Cathedral’, The Poetry Review (2023)
- ‘Featherweight’, Poem of the Week, The Telegraph (2023)
- ‘Junctions’, Poetry London (2023)
- ‘The Last Good Market’, The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 (2021)
- ‘Thames’, Poem of the Week, The Guardian (2021)
- ‘Night Change’ and ‘Where the devil gets in’, Poetry Ireland Review (2020)
Reviews and articles
- ‘In Person: Bloodaxe Books, Neil Astley on Translation, interviewed by John Challis’, Poetry Salzburg Review (2023)
- ‘Twentieth-Century Men: Vernon Scannell and Jack Spicer’, Poetry Salzburg Review (2022)
- ‘Poetry in Prison: Hope on a Postcard’, Poetry News (2020)
Permanent Afternoons: The Underworld in the Poetry of Sean O’Brien’, Wild Court (2018)
Talks and readings
I have given papers, readings and talks at festivals and conferences including Durham Book Festival; Poetry London; Poetry in Aldeburgh; Ledbury Poetry Festival; Newcastle Poetry Festival; Live Literature in Bolton; Berwick Literary Festival; GemArts Masala Festival; York Literature Festival; Reading in Prison at Roehampton University; The Contemporary British and Irish Poetry Conference at University of Manchester; The Expanded Lyric at Queens University Belfast; and for radio on The Verb on BBC Radio 3 and The Echo Chamber on BBC Radio 4.
Professional activities
I am an editor for Poetry Salzburg Review and Volume Poetry; an External Examiner for the BA in Creative Writing at Falmouth University; and a tutor for the Faber Academy.
