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Douglas Dunn

For the American choreographer, see Douglas Dunn (choreographer).

Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University.

Bust of Douglas Dunn at Edinburgh Park.

Background

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Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.[1] He was educated at the Scottish School of Librarianship, and worked as a librarian before he started his studies in Hull. After graduating with a First Class Honours degree from the University of Hull, he worked in the university's Brynmor Jones Library under Philip Larkin.[2] He was friendly with Larkin and admired his poetry, but did not share his political opinions.

He was a Professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1991, becoming Director of the University's Scottish Studies Centre in 1993 until his retirement in September 2008. He is now an Honorary Professor at St Andrews, still undertaking postgraduate supervision in the School of English. He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1992–1994). He holds an honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee, an honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull and St Andrews. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003.

Terry Street, Dunn's first collection of poems, appeared in 1969 and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award as well as a Somerset Maugham Award. Evoking his time working in Hull, the poems take as their inspiration working class life on a street of back-to-backs just off the Beverley Road (the street remains today, but all of the houses have been replaced).

Awards and honours

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Selected works

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  • Terry Street - 1969 (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award)
  • The Happier Life - 1972
  • Love or Nothing - 1974 (winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize)
  • Barbarians - 1979
  • St. Kilda's Parliament - 1981 (winner of the Hawthornden Prize)
  • Europa's Lover - 1982
  • Elegies - 1985
  • Secret Villages (collection of short stories) - 1985
  • Northlight - 1988
  • Andromache (translation of Racine's play of the same name) - 1990
  • Dante's Drum-Kit - 1993
  • Boyfriends and Girlfriends - 1995
  • The Donkey's Ears - 2000
  • The Year's Afternoon - 2000
  • New Selected Poems 1964-2000 - 2002
  • Invisible Ink - 2011
  • The Noise of a Fly - 2017

Reviews

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  • White, Kenneth (1982), review of St. Kilda's Parliament, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp.44 & 45, ISSN 0264-0856
  • Craig, Cairns (1984), Lourd on My Hert, which includes a review of Europa's Lover, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 15, New Year 1984, pp. 54 & 55, ISSN 0264-0856

Notes

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  1. ^ "Professor Douglas Dunn - Literature".
  2. ^ Wroe, 2003

References

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