Kendall, Tim 1970-

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KENDALL, Tim 1970-

PERSONAL: Born 1970. Education: Oxford University, B.A. (English literature), 1991, D.Phil., 1994.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of English, University of Bristol, 3/5 Woodland Rd., Bristol BS8 1TB, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Editor, educator, publisher, and writer. University of Bristol, Bristol, England, reader in English. Thumbscrew Press (publisher of poetry pamphlets), founder, 2002—; Thumbscrew (poetry journal), founding editor, 1994-2002. British Academy, Thomas Chatterton lecturer, 2001.

AWARDS, HONORS: Eric Gregory Award, Society of Authors, 1997; outstanding academic title, Choice, 1997, for Paul Muldoon; English Association (fellow).

WRITINGS:

Paul Muldoon, Dufour Editions (Chester Springs, PA), 1996.

Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA), 2001.

(Editor, with Peter McDonald) Paul Muldoon: CriticalEssays, Liverpool University Press (Liverpool, England), 2004.

Contributor of essays and poetry to books and periodicals. Poetry featured in Oxford Poets 2000, edited by Hermione Lee, David Constantine, and Bernard O'Donoghue, Carcanet, 2000. Regular contributor of book reviews to Times Literary Supplement, Guardian, Oxford Poetry, P. N. Review, Poetry Review, and Notes & Queries.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Twentieth-Century Poetry from Britain and Ireland, for Blackwell Critical Guides; Strange Land (poetry collection), for Carcanet; a study of twentieth-century poetry on the topic of war.

SIDELIGHTS: Tim Kendall is an editor, educator, publisher, and writer; both his own poetry and his critical analyses of the work done by other poets have brought him awards and honors. He has written one major book and edited another on the Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Paul Muldoon, and he also founded and edited the now-discontinued poetry journal Thumb-screw, which was known for its piercing criticisms of modern poetry. As Kendall himself described it in the editorial he wrote for the final issue of Thumbscrew, the journal "was lucky to catch a wave of upcoming critics and poet-critics, all in their twenties, who shared not so much a program or manifesto as a distaste for the insider dealings of the poetry scene." The cessation of Thumbscrew led to the birth of Thumbscrew Press, which publishes poetry pamphlets; Kendall is the press's founder.

Kendall's first book, Paul Muldoon, "provides a detailed and accessible introduction to Paul Muldoon's poetic oeuvre," Chris Greenhalgh noted in the Times Literary Supplement. Moving chronologically through Muldoon's published collections, Kendall examines the progression of the poet's work. He argues that each of Muldoon's published collections should be analyzed as a whole, with its own distinct architecture and a coherent set of repeating themes and motifs, and he also provides "elegant and dependable glosses on individual poems" that are "happily free of jargon," in Greenhalgh's words.

Kendall followed his study of Muldoon with the book Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study. The book has been lauded for its balance of academic intensity and approachability. In his study of the poet and her work, Kendall asks the reader to abandon the desire to use Plath's poetry as a tool to unearth a deeper understanding of the poet and the mythology that surrounds her life; instead he urges that Plath's work should be approached solely for the words she wrote and what they are able to offer. Kendall's goal for his study is reflected in the fact that the book is an organized chronology of Plath's writings, rather than an account of the events that transpired in her personal life. In a review of the book for the Times Higher Education Supplement, Erica Wagner wrote, "The reader may not always agree with Kendall's interpretations," but she concluded that "Kendall's study gives us a reminder we need—of the power of Plath's poetry and its ability to speak for itself."