Ken Champion
BornPlaistow
OccupationPoet, novelist, lecturer
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity of East Anglia
SpousePatience Champion
Website
Official website

Ken Champion is an English poet, novelist and critic whose work has appeared in literary journals in the US and in magazines and anthologies in the UK.[1]

He is the author of three full-length poetry collections, six novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories. A pamphlet, chapbook and his first full-length collection, But Black and White is Better (2008), are published by Tall Lighthouse[2]. He was a profiled poet in SOUTH[3] magazine[4] and a featured writer for the literary magazine MQB[5] and for the POETRY kit[6].[2]

Biography

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Brought up in Plaistow in London's East End, Champion worked as a house painter and decorator, signwriter, and mural artist from 1957 until 1981. He read sociology and philosophy at the University of East Anglia from 1972 to 1975. He lectured in sociology at further education colleges in London from 1982 until retiring in 2002.[7]

From 2005 until 2019 he hosted a monthly poetry open mic evening, first at Stoney Street Café in Borough Market, then at Fazenda Cafe in Spitalfields.[8]

Personal life

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Champion lives in Ilford, London. He has three sons.

Poetry

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A pamphlet, African Time (Tall Lighthouse, 2002) was followed by a chapbook, Cameo Poly (Tall Lighthouse, 2004).

Full-length collections:

  • But Black and White is Better (Tall Lighthouse, 2008)
  • Cameo Metro (Penniless Press,[9] 2013)
  • Of Course, the Yellow Cab (The High Window Press,[10] 2019)

Short stories

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A collection of short stories, Urban Narratives, was published by Penniless Press in 2013.

Novellas

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  • The Dramaturgical Metaphor (Penniless Press, 2014)
  • The Beat Years (Penniless Press, 2015)

Novels

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  • Keefie (Penniless Press, 2015)
  • Noir (Penniless Press, 2016)
  • Thrust (Penniless Press, 2017)
  • The Politicos (Penniless Press, 2019)
  • Future Tense (Penniless Press, 2020)
  • Then And Us (Penniless Press, 2022)

References

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  1. ^ Leadbeater, Neil (14 May 2019). "Of Course, the Yellow Cab: Ken Champion, The High Window". Write Out Loud. United Kingdom: Write Out Loud 2015 CIC. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  2. ^ a b Champion, Ken. "Ken Champion". Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  3. ^ http://www.southpoetry.org/
  4. ^ Les Robinson (April 2013). "Poet Profile". South. No. 47. SOUTH Poetry Magazine. ISSN 0959-1133.
  5. ^ Alan Dent; Nancy Frost, eds. (Autumn 2019). "Art House". MQB. No. 13. ISSN 2046-2182.
  6. ^ https://www.poetrykit.org/
  7. ^ "Ken Champion CV" (Document). Ken Champion.
  8. ^ Ken Champion. "Ken Champion - Events". Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  9. ^ http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/
  10. ^ https://thehighwindowpress.com/


Category:Living people Category:21st-century British poets