Congratulations to David Cooke, who has just published his first collection of poetry, In the Distance, in more than 20 years. David, a regular on Write Out Loud,  won a Gregory award in 1977 while a student at Nottingham University. Other recipients of this award for promising young poets over the years have included Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Alice Oswald, Mick Imlah, and Jackie Kay.

A collection, Brueghel’s Dancers, was published in 1984. Then followed a long silence, partly due to his duties as head of modern languages at a comprehensive school. But there is no stopping him now. In The Distance is available from Night Publishing  on Amazon. A further collection, Work Horses, will be coming out next year from Ward Wood Publishing. 

He was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, although his family comes from the west of Ireland. As many WOL readers will know, a number of his poems reflect a sense of place and displacement between Ireland and England. His poems and reviews have been published widely in the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe. David will be reading from his collection on 10 June at the Friday Night Writers open mic night at Swiss Cottage library in north London, and on 17 June at the Poets Cafe, Reading.