John Mackay was born in South Yorkshire and lived for most of his childhood in West Cumbria. He spent years in wet fields, building drystone walls and planting trees, before moving to London in 1988 to become a journalist. John also trained at the Institute of Education, and spent three illuminating years as an English teacher in a Further Education college. In 1999, he did an MPhil in Poetry at Stirling University — his dissertation focused on Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters and Thomas Hardy’s Poems of 1912-13.

John has had work published in many magazines, including Stand, The Frogmore Papers, Seam, Acumen, Trespass, Quattrocento, The Interpreter’s House, Brittle Star and Coffee House Poetry. He has read at venues in London, at Tongues & Grooves in Southsea, and the Derwent Poetry Festival in Derbyshire. In 2008, he won a Best Individual Poem Award in the Templar Pamphlet and Collection Competition, and his work is published in the Templar anthology, Buzz.

John organises regular readings at the London Irish Centre in Camden, featuring six poets and live music. He lives in Enfield, north London, and works as a freelance journalist.

e-mail John

London Irish Centre
Templar Poetry
Poetry Kit
Tongues & Grooves

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