Michael Symmons Roberts facts for kids

Michael Symmons Roberts (born in 1963) is a British poet. He writes many different kinds of things, including poems, novels, and words for music like operas. He has won several important awards for his poetry, such as the Forward Prize, the Costa Book Award, and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. He also teaches poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Life and Career

Michael Symmons Roberts was born in Preston, a town in Lancashire, England. He spent his early years there before his family moved to Newbury in Berkshire in the 1970s. He went to school in Newbury and later studied Philosophy and Theology at Regent's Park College, Oxford University.

After university, he worked as a newspaper journalist. Then, in 1989, he joined the BBC (a big broadcasting company) as a radio producer in Cardiff. He moved with the BBC to London and then to Manchester. He worked on radio shows and later made documentary films. Before he left the BBC to focus on writing full-time, he was an Executive Producer for their Religion and Ethics department.

When he was younger, Michael Symmons Roberts was an atheist, meaning he didn't believe in God. However, when he went to Oxford University, his studies in philosophy made him think differently. He realized that everyone's beliefs, whether religious or not, are shaped by their culture and experiences. He felt that there isn't one single "objective" way to see the world. This new understanding changed his mind, and he became a Catholic.

People have described his poetry in interesting ways. For example, Jeanette Winterson called him "a religious poet for a secular age," meaning he writes about faith in a world that often doesn't focus on it. His poems often mix ideas from science, especially genetics, with theology and philosophy.

His Creative Work

Michael Symmons Roberts has written many successful poetry books. His fourth book of poetry, Corpus, won the 2004 Whitbread Prize for Poetry. It was also considered for other big awards like the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize. He had already won other awards for young poets earlier in his career. In 2012, he became a Fellow of the English Association, which is an honor for people who contribute to language arts. In 2014, he was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

His sixth poetry collection, Drysalter, won both the 2013 Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Award. It was also a finalist for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

He often works with the composer James MacMillan. Together, they have created music for the BBC Proms (a famous music festival), song cycles, and even an opera called The Sacrifice. This opera won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2008.

Michael Symmons Roberts has also written many pieces for radio. These include dramas and documentaries. Some of his radio works have won awards, like 'A Fearful Symmetry' and 'Soldiers in the Sun'. He has also written two novels, Patrick's Alphabet (published in 2006) and Breath (published in 2008). Besides writing and teaching, he has helped judge many poetry awards.

Awards and Honours

Awards He Won

• Eric Gregory Award (1988)
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation (2001)
• Sandford St Martin Premier Award (2002)
• K Blundell Trust Award (2003)
• Jerusalem Trust Award (2004)
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation (2004)
• Whitbread Prize for Poetry (2004)
• Arts Council Writers Award (2007)
• Clarion Award for Radio Drama (2008)
• Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards (with James MacMillan) (2008)
• Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction (with Paul Farley) (2009)
• Fellowship of the English Association (2012)
• Foyles Best Book of Ideas Award (with Paul Farley) (2012)
• Poetry Book Society Choice (2013)
• Forward Poetry Prize Best Poetry Collection of the Year (2013)
• Costa Book Award in Poetry for Drysalter (2013)
• Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature (2014)
• Poetry Book Society Special Commendation (2016)
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation (2017)
• Poetry Book Society Recommendation (2021)
• Cholmondeley Award for Poetry (2023)

Awards He Was Shortlisted For

• T. S. Eliot Prize (2001)
• T. S. Eliot Prize (2004)
• Forward Poetry Prize Best Poetry Collection of the Year (2004)
• Griffin International Poetry Prize (2005)
• Mental Health Award (for Radio Drama) (2008)
• Olivier Awards (with James MacMillan) (2012)
• Ondaatje Prize (with Paul Farley) (2012)
• T. S. Eliot Prize (2013)
• BBC Audio Drama Awards (2014) Best Single Drama for 'The Sleeper'
• BBC Audio Drama Awards (2015) Best Single Drama for 'Men Who Sleep in Cars' on BBC Radio 4
• Tinniswood Award (2015) Best Radio Drama Script for 'Men Who Sleep in Cars' on BBC Radio 4
• Portico Prize (2015)
• T. S. Eliot Prize (2017)
• T. S. Eliot Prize (2021)

His Published Works

Books

• Soft Keys, (Secker and Warburg, 1993). ISBN: 0-436-41988-2
• Raising Sparks, (Jonathan Cape, 1999). ISBN: 0-224-05902-5
• Burning Babylon, (Jonathan Cape, 2001). ISBN: 0-224-06185-2
• Lime kilns, (Redundant Press, 2002). Limited edition
• Her Maker's Maker, (Phoenix Poetry Pamphlets, 2002). Limited edition
• Corpus, (Jonathan Cape, 2004) (winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award). ISBN: 0-224-07342-7
• The Miracles of Jesus, (Lion Hudson, 2006). ISBN: 0-7459-5194-5. Official tie-in to TV series
• Patrick's Alphabet, (Jonathan Cape, 2006). ISBN: 0-224-07596-9
• Breath, (Jonathan Cape, 2008). ISBN: 978-0-224-07802-3
• The Half Healed, (Jonathan Cape, 2008). ISBN: 978-0-224-08567-0
• Edgelands: Journeys into England's True Wilderness (with Paul Farley), (Jonathan Cape, 2011). ISBN: 978-0-224-08902-9
• Drysalter, (Jonathan Cape, 2013) (winner of the 2013 Costa Poetry Award). ISBN: 978-0-22409359-0
• Selected Poems, (Jonathan Cape, 2016) ISBN: 978-1-910-70242-0
• Deaths of the Poets, (with Paul Farley), (Jonathan Cape, 2017). ISBN: 978-0-224-09754-3
• Mancunia, (Jonathan Cape, 2017) ISBN: 978-1-91121-429-8
• Takk, (Illustrations by Jake Attree. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry, 2020)
• Ransom, (Jonathan Cape, 2021) ISBN: 978-1-787-33312-3

Words for Music (Libretti)

• Clemency (opera) (composer James MacMillan)
• The Sleeper (opera) (composer Stephen Deazley)
• The Sacrifice (opera) (composer James MacMillan)
• Parthenogenesis (composer James MacMillan)
• The Birds of Rhiannon (BBC Proms commission) (composer James MacMillan)
• Quickening (BBC Proms commission) (composer James MacMillan)
• Raising Sparks (composer James MacMillan)
• Sun Dogs (composer James MacMillan)
• Chosen (composer James MacMillan)

Selected Radio and Broadcast Work

• BBC Radio 3 interview and reading for – 'Northern Drift' – 2022
• BBC Radio 4 drama – 'Brimstone' – 2000
• BBC Radio 4 drama – 'Cleaning the Pipes' – 2006
• BBC Radio 3 drama – 'Soldiers in the Sun' – 2007
• BBC Radio 4 drama – 'Worktown' – 2008
• BBC Radio 4 adaptation of his novel 'Breath' – 2008
• BBC Radio 3 adaptation of Tennyson poem 'Idylls of the King' – 2009
• BBC Radio 4 drama – 'A Man in Pieces' – 2010
• BBC Radio 3 drama – 'Migrant Mother' – 2010
• BBC Radio 4 poem – 'Last Words' – to mark the first anniversary of 9/11, performed by Sir Antony Sher.
• BBC Radio 4 / World Service poem for Hiroshima Day – 'A Fearful Symmetry.'
• BBC Radio 2 series – 'Behold the Man' – a 6-part biography of Jesus, performed by Derek Jacobi.
• BBC Radio 4 poem – 'The Wounds' – for Good Friday, performed by Simon Russell Beale.
• BBC Radio 4 poem – 'The Hurricane' – for Pentecost, performed by Fiona Shaw.
• BBC Radio 4 poem – 'Crossing the Dark Sea' – to mark D-Day anniversary, with Christopher Eccleston and Katherine Jenkins.
• BBC Radio 4 poem – 'White Nights'
• BBC Radio 4 poem for 'Today' programme on National Poetry Day.
• BBC Radio 2 series – 'Anno Domini' – an 11-part history of Christianity in Britain, performed by Derek Jacobi.
• BBC Radio 4 series – 'A Higher Place' – writer and presenter of series on Sacred Mountains.
• BBC Radio 2 series – 'Landscape of Remembrance' – on the poets of the First World War.
• BBC Radio 4 feature – 'Hound of Heaven' – on the Victorian poet Francis Thompson.
• BBC Radio 2 series – 'The Good Book' – a 6-part series on the Bible.
• BBC Radio 4 feature – 'The Chair' – on Welsh poetry.
• BBC Radio 4 documentary – 'The Cross' – writer and presenter.
• BBC Radio 2 series – 'Sacred Nation' – a history of multi-faith Britain, presented by Christopher Eccleston.
• BBC Radio 3 feature – 'Elegy' – writer and presenter, about the history of poetic elegy.
• BBC Radio 3 feature – 'Utopian Pessimist' – writer and presenter, about Simone Weil.
• BBC Radio 4 feature – 'Three Faces of WH Auden' – 2023