The Starbeck Orion Issue #6 Showcasing: Peter J Donnelly, Page 1 of 25

A Feast Of Words And Image

Peter J Donnelly

was born in Middlesbrough where he lived until he was three years old.  He then spent four years living in Gosforth near Newcastle-upon-Tyne before moving to a village in North Yorkshire.  After another four years he moved with his family to the nearest market town, Malton.  Shortly after this he started secondary school in York where he was taught by the soon-to-be published poet Carole Bromley, who encouraged and influenced his love of reading and writing.  He had quite enjoyed writing poetry at primary school but took it up again whilst studying for his A levels in York, and continued once he started university in Lampeter, where he was studying English Literature.  Here he came under the influence of Gillian Clarke who ran a weekly writers workshop he attended – possibly the longest running writers workshop in Wales, specialising in poetry and attended by Kathy Miles, Sue Moules and Anne Grimes, who also were and continue to be a great influence on his work. 

After he graduated he did not write much for a couple of years but eventually started attending a creative writing evening class in Malton and began to write fiction.  Having worked for an insurance company for two years he decided to return to university to study for a MA in creative writing.  After applying to several universities it seemed the best option for him was to return to Lampeter where he had been very happy as an undergraduate.  He was taught by the playwright Dic Edwards and once again attended the workshop which Gillian Clarke still ran, and his love of poetry was soon rekindled.  One of the highlights of his second time in Lampeter was meeting Gwyneth Lewis who came to give a reading at the university, organised by the workshop.  Having got his MA he spent a brief period living in Aberystwyth before realising that much as he loved Wales it was unlikely he was going to be able to settle there. 

He returned to Yorkshire where he eventually found employment with the NHS.  He tried to keep writing and did attend various workshops and courses, but it was not really until he moved to York, where he was now working as an assistant medical secretary, that he began regularly writing poems again.  Although he was no longer attending writers groups he was reading and re-reading poetry in earnest.  He began sending his work to competitions and his first major success came when he had a poem included in the Ripon Poetry Festival anthology in 2019 and was invited to read this out at the launch, where it was well received.  He then began sending poems to magazines as well as competitions and often appeared in Writer’s Egg and Dreich.  Since then he has been featured in Black Nore Review, Obsessed with Pipework, High Window, Fragmented Voices, Dust, Atrium, Ink Sweat and Tears, One Hand Clapping, Lothlorien and Southlight.  He has also appeared in various anthologies – for the fourth time he this year had a poem included in the High Wolds Festival’s collection, and on two occasions has been included in York Literary Review’s anthology.

Though he has occasionally been shortlisted in competitions, he has so far only once been a joint runner up in the Buzzwords open poetry competition in 2020, and he won second prize in the Ripon Poetry Festival competition in 2021.  He approached various publishers with chapbook submissions, and eventually had his first collection The Second of August accepted by Alien Buddha Press in 2023.  Later that year this press also published his first full length collection of poetry Solving the Puzzle.  Since then he has given an online reading organised by Carole Bromley at York library, and continues to write and appear in the magazines already mentioned.  He hopes to put together a third collection in the near future.

General Interview About Peters Creativity

Q:1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I started writing poetry in the sixth form at school, for an optional module in Creative Writing which I took as part of A level English Literature,  which I was taught by the now published poet Carole Bromley. 

Q: 1.1. What made you choose that option at school?

I didn't really choose it. There were only four of us in the class. We were asked if we wanted to do it and all said yes.

Q: 2. Who introduced you to poetry?

I think Carole Bromley did really,  as she was at the time starting to write it herself as well as reading a lot of it. My other English teacher taught me Seamus Heaney. Gillian Clarke helped me to develop my interest further once I got to university.

Wild Raspberries in Harrogate was first published by Ripon Poetry Festival in their anthology Creative Juices in September 2023.

The Showcase Interview

I asked Peter to choose 25 poems that he felt expressed his poetic outlook. I then asked him questions about his choices.

Q:1. What made you choose a poem about Harrogate as your opener for this Showcase?

It is a place that features in quite a few of my poems, this one as yet not published in a collection of my own, though it was included in the nearby Ripon Poetry Festival's anthology 'Creative Juices' last year.  I have never lived there myself though I have quite a lot of family in the area, and I  mostly associate it with going to visit my late grandfather who was born in the town and lived there for much of his life.  Like many towns and cities it isn't the place it used to be, although many parts of it remain unchanged,  not least the Valley Gardens and the nearby woodland walk which connects them with Harlow Carr.

Q:1.1: How important is a sense of place in your poetry?

It is quite important.  Many poems I have written are about places I associate with people whom I have been there with. North Yorkshire features a lot, as do Wales and the west country,  particularly Devon. I often visit a place I am fond of and think I must write a poem about it,  but it doesn't always follow that I do so immediately.  Memory certainly plays an important part in my writing,  and I have often written poems about places I visited many years ago and haven't been back to since.

Q:2. I notice quite a few poems featured in The Ripon Poetry Festival books. What place do poetry competitions have in your writing?

Usually when I write a poem I enter it in a competition before sending it to a magazine.  My only major successes so far have been in the Buzzwords open Poetry competition in 2020, incidentally with another poem about Harrogate,  and in the Ripon Poetry Festival competition in 2021. I have had poems longlisted in a couple of competitions. If they don't succeed in one, I rarely send them to another,  though I seem to have a lot of success with the Ripon Festival. Even though I have only won a prize there once, I have had poems included in their anthology each year for five years running. They have all been poems that were previously rejected elsewhere.