Rosemary Tonks was born in 1928 in Gillingham, Kent, and published two collections to critical acclaim in the 1960s, Notes on Cafes and Bedrooms (1963) and Iliad of Broken Sentences (1967). Tonks also published six novels in the 1960s and early 1970s, before retiring from public view in the 1980s. In the year of her death, Bloodaxe Books published a collected edition of her poems with a selection of additional prose, Bedouin of the London Evening (2014).

This collection consists of digital copies of Tonks’s personal diaries, correspondence between Tonks and Joan Moat from the University of Exeter, and photocopies ofTonks’s personal records. A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.

The Sean O’Brien Archive reflects the full range of O’Brien’s work as a poet, dramatist, novelist, translator, critic and editor. Comprising the majority of O’Brien’s working papers from 1977 to 2015, the archive represents an extensive body of notes, manuscript drafts, typescripts, revised proofs, and literary correspondence. At the centre of the collection are approximately 80 notebooks containing drafts of poetry and prose, research notes, and day-to-day notes and sketches.

Early poetry drafts are preserved alongside later typescripts and revised proofs, providing an exceptionally full account of O’Brien’s practice of composition and revision. This material covers the extent of the author’s career to date, from his first poetry collection, The Indoor Park (1983), to his most recent, The Beautiful Librarians (2015). O’Brien’s work as novelist, dramatist, editor, and translator is also fully represented in notes, manuscripts, typescripts, and revised proofs.

The archive also collects a substantial portion of O’Brien’s literary correspondence, principally from the 1980s (notable correspondents include Mick Imlah, Douglas Dunn, and Neil Astley). This correspondence offers further insights into O’Brien’s work across several genres, including his editorship of poetry journals and his work as dramatist and translator.

A video interview marking the addition of O’Brien’s archive to the Contemporary Poetry Collections at Newcastle University, was conducted by Dr John Challis on 8th August 2017, and can be viewed in full below. In this interview O’Brien discusses the contents of his archive, his drafting process, his work as a literary critic and translator, his poetic development, and the subjects that occur throughout his work: history, politics, England, and the dead.

A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.

Jack Mapanje was born in Malawi in 1944, growing up in Kadango village in the Mangochi district. His first collection, Of Chameleons and Gods, was published in the UK in 1981 by Heinemann. In 1985 this collection was withdrawn from circulation in Malawi by the government of dictator Hastings Banda, and Mapanje was subsequently arrested and detained without charge or trial in Mikuyu Prison in Malaw. During his time in prison, Mapanje wrote his second collection, The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison (1993), and much of his third, Skipping without Ropes (1998). Mapanje’s subsequent collections include The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems (2004), Beasts of Nalunga (2007), and Greetings from Grandpa (2016).

This collection includes correspondence, press cuttings, books and draft manuscripts relating to Mapanje’s time as a political prisoner in Malawi, the campaign for his release, and the publication of his poetry. A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.

A major figure in the British Poetry Revival of the 1960s and 1970s, Barry MacSweeney (1948-2000) was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. A regular at the Morden Tower poetry readings organised by Tom Pickard in the late 1960s, MacSweeney would also forge links with ‘Cambridge School’ poets including J.H. Prynne and John James. His first collection was published in 1968 and several subsequent volumes would be published by his own Blacksuede Boot press, established in 1973. Later collections include Ranter (1985), Pearl (1995), and – posthumously – Wolf Tongue: Selected Poems, 1965-2000 (2003) and Desire Lines: Unselected Poems, 1966-2000, edited by Luke Roberts (2018).

This collection includes manuscripts and published works, correspondence, reviews, poetry publications, photographs, and newspaper articles. The correspondence includes letters from a range of MacSweeney’s friends, fellow poets, and family, including material from Maggie O’Sullivan, Eric Mottram, Elaine Randall, J.H. Prynne and Chris Torrence. A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.

The Selima Hill Archive contains approximately 120 manuscript notebooks in addition to drafts, revised printouts, correspondence, postcards, and ephemera. The notebooks at the core of the archive date from the late 1960s to the present, and are of three varieties. The first are notebooks preparatory to poetry composition, including lists of words and phrases as well as notes and draft lines and stanzas. The second are commonplace books, containing quotes from a wide range of writers and philosophers. The third variety of notebooks are concerned specifically with Hill’s experience of Asperger’s Syndrome.

At earlier stages of her career, Hill routinely destroyed notes and drafts following publication. However, drafts and revised proofs of more recent poems have been preserved in the collection. Correspondence includes personal material in addition to correspondence with Bloodaxe Books, the Poetry Trust, and other institutions. The Archive also gathers a range of miscellaneous personal items, including scrapbooks, diaries and family albums.

A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.

The Moniza Alvi Archive comprises five notebooks, manuscript drafts, annotated typescripts, research notes and correspondence. The notebooks, which date from 1990 to c. 2015, contain poetry drafts, notes, and commonplace quotations. Manuscript and typescript drafts (dating from At the Time of Partition, 2013) provide a strong account of Alvi’s practice of composition and revision. Correspondence includes written letters and e-mail print-outs from Alvi’s publishers (Oxford University Press and Bloodaxe Books) as well as from individuals and literary magazines. A pilot digital project tracing the composition and revision of ‘Must We Go?’, a poem published in At the Time of Partition, can be found here.

A collection level description is available at Archives Hub. Readers wishing to consult the collection in person at the University Library Special Collections may complete our request form. Further information about Special Collections, including accessibility and opening hours, can be found here.