Bill Greenwell was born in Sunderland in 1952, and lived in Devon from 1973, where he worked in further education for 28 years. Realising that this was Ronnie Biggs’ sentence, he went freelance as a writer and creative writing teacher in 2002. Since 2007, he has been Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Open University, and co-authored its Level 3 Creative Writing course. In 2009, he moved back to the North-East, where he is Arts Staff Tutor for the Open University in the North. He now lives in Darlington.
 
He was New Statesman’s weekly satirical poet from 1994 to 2002, and has been a regular winner in the parody competitions which appear in the NS, Spectator and elsewhere for over thirty years. Parodies and poems from these competitions appear in about forty anthologies. A collection of satirical poems from the NS, Tony Blair Reminds Me Of A Budgie, published by his own small press, Entire Photo Here, came out in 1996. Now out of print, it can be found, with many other poems, on his web-site, www.billgreenwell.com. Entire Photo Here also published Spoof, which includes parodies from the Independent, Spectator, New Statesman, TES, and Radio 4. New Statesman supports an additional satirical poetry site, www.theweeklypoem.com.
 
His Impossible Objects (2006) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best first collection. His second collection, Ringers, was published in 2011. Both are published by Cinnamon.
 

Here is one of the sharpest tongues around in the poetry world, one of the sharpest pair of eyes, and the sharpest of hearts. Acute observation, recollection, wit and deep feeling are directed by the energy of imagination and focus of craft in a long and sustained collection that sees this poet at the top of his game, holding his nerve on the knife-edge of experience.

Penelope Shuttle

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