Mark Goodwin

(United Kingdom)

Poet-sound-artist. Speaks & writes in various ways.
Balancer, walker, climber, stroller.

Mark Goodwin is published by a number of poetry houses including:
Leafe Press’s Open House Editions, Longbarrow Press, & Shearsman Books.

Mark creates through words in various ways in various places –
on paper, on-line, blended with photos, in film-poems, to live
audience, or through mixing his voice with field-recordings &
soundscapes ... and often through collaboration with other
artists. He is also a ground-aslanter, his work being

included in Shearsman Book’s ground-tilting anthology 'The Ground Aslant – An
Anthology of Radical Landscape Poetry' (2011). His work was also included in
Longbarrow Press's celebrated walking-poetry anthology, 'The Footing' (2013).

To date (February 2022), Mark has published six full-length poetry collections
and ten chapbooks with various poetry houses (British Isles & North America).
Both Mark's books with Longbarrow - 'Steps' (2014) & 'Rock as Gloss' (2018) –
focus on moving through landscape and navigation. His latest chapbook -
a compressed mountain travelogue called 'Erodes On Air' - is out
in North America with Middle Creek.

Mark continues to explore - on foot or with feet-&-hands - English, Welsh, Scottish mountains;
urban-rimlands; crags; coastlands; individual trees of various species; riverbanks; derelict
buildings; lakeshores; woodlands; various fence-rails; suspended-narrow-ways and ... moors ...

Mark was born in 1969, and grew up on a farm in South Leicestershire.
For the past two decades or so he has lived on a narrowboat, just
off the river Soar, and just north of Leicester.

Some of Mark's sound-enhanced poetry can be listened to on Bandcamp
via the following link: https://markgoodwin-poet-sound-artist.bandcamp.com

.

‘Scrupulous response to landscape, adventurous ways of using the white
space of the page, observational energy and tactility in the language combine
to create an authentic sense of place, vital and transformative.’

- Penelope Shuttle

.

‘Mark Goodwin’s words operate at levels beyond the ordinary – being able
to fragment and reconvene in startlingly fresh aggregations. It’s hard not to
liken them to the rocks and pebbles he’s at home with in his climbing and walking
– or to picture the craftsman busy at his bench sorting, cutting, and polishing.
Readers are required to bring similar levels of attention to bear – which effort
will be amply rewarded. To be alert to the opportunities his words offer is to become
a traveller in expectation and uncommon delight.’

- Peter Dent

.

[Mark Goodwin's] language is full of pores, breathing spaces, places
where you can catch your own thoughts ...

- Helen Mort

.

‘Goodwin’s startling poems record how certain landscapes leave
you “weathered”, “shed”, “meshed”, “flicked open”.'

- Robert Macfarlane, whilst reviewing 'The Ground Aslant'.

.

Some links to publications:

Leafe Press: http://www.leafepress.com/catalog/goodwin/tones.html

Longbarrow Press: https://longbarrowpress.com/current-publications/mark-goodwin/

Middle Creek: https://www.middlecreekpublishing.com/erodes-on-air

Shearsman Books: https://www.shearsman.com/store/Goodwin-Mark-c28271739

'The Footing': https://longbarrowpress.com/current-publications/the-footing/

'The Ground Aslant': https://www.shearsman.com/store/Harriet-Tarlo-The-Ground-Aslant-An-Anthology-of-Radical-Landscape-Poetry-p102839172