Work
Below you’ll find details of the places Ian’s work has appeared in, prizes his work has been listed in, and details of performances, workshops, and live events. To see examples of his poems, please visit the Poems page.
Print & online publications - a complete list
A - Z of Superstitions - forthcoming from Yaffle Press, summer 2023
Whirlagust 3 - Yaffle Press Poetry competition 2022
The View from Olympia (eds Joe Williams & Peter R White) 2020 (‘Intimately’; ‘My Lover used to be an Olympic Athlete’) 2020
Riggwelter magazine issue 23 (‘The Porn’) 2020
An Insubstantial Universe (eds Edwin Stockdale & Amina Alyal) 2020 (‘Tight Lacing’)
The Poetry Village (online). (‘Lovesong of a Wiley Old Pike’) 2019
The Common Grass Appreciation Society (‘Landranger’) 2019
Nachbarschaft / Neighbourhood (LiteraturRaum) 2019 (‘Meet Me at the Man with the Barrel’; ‘Was hast du im Fass?’)
Bonnie’s Crew issue 1 - online - 2019 (‘Ventrial Stenosis: Operated’)
Coast to Coast to Coast (ed. Maria Isakova-Bennett) 2019 (‘The Angels’ Share’)
Stand magazine, issue 17(1) 2019 (‘Face’; ‘Harold Rex Interfectus Est’)
Three Drops from a Cauldron - online - midwinter 2018 (‘Solstice’)
LGBT Poetry Jukebox, Belfast, 2018 (‘Blue God’)
Prole, issue 26, 2018 (‘The Sad Death from Hypothermia of Gordan Strachan, Aged 18 months’)
Algebra of Owls, 2018 - online - (Planet-shine)
Any Change: Poetry in a Hostile Environment (ed Ian Duhig), 2018 (‘Aire’)
The Poetry Village - online - 2018, (‘Lovesong of a Wiley Old Pike’)
Rules of Survival (full collection), Templar Poetry 2017.
Un/forced: An anthology of poetry and fiction from Rhubarb, 2017 (‘Traffic Update: Tony Harrison’)
Inspiring Futures (ed Oz Hardwick), 2017 (‘The Fresher’s Guide to Yoga Poses’)
Portmanteau: Leeds Trinity University writing anthology, 2017 (‘Plagiapoem’)
new boots and pantisocracies, 2016, (‘Saturday Night on the Death Strip)
iOTA issue 95, 2016, (‘Goldfinches Gatecrash the Arnolfini Wedding’)
My Chariot of Fire: James Cauty's The Aftermath Dislocation Principle, 2016 (‘Thomas Piketty Picks his Way through the Shattered Shopfronts’)
Half Moon: Poems about Pubs, 2016 (‘Saturday Night at the Admiral Bembo Inn’; ‘The Last Night of the Piano’)
Remembering Oluwale (ed SJ Bradley), 2016 (‘Aire’)
Surprise View: Poems About Otley, 2016 (‘Letting’)
The Book of Plans, Hopes and Dreams, 2014 (‘Dear Uncle Harry’; ‘Either Side of Streetview’)
The Garden: Poems that will Grow on You (‘Bird’)
Stand Magazine 2014, (‘In the Beginning’)
Versions of the North (ed Ian Parks) 2013 (‘Yellow Poppies’; ‘Balancing Act’)
Agenda magazine 2012 (‘Tree’; ‘Earthwork’; ‘Nets’)
Other Poetry magazine 2011 (‘The Fire Tree’)
Prizes
2nd Prize, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2022 (‘The Leeds Mummy Visits Meanwood Park’)
Longlisted, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2022 (‘The Dead Pornstars’)
3rd Prize, Leeds Poetry Festival Competition 2021 (‘Indicator Species’)
Shortlisted, Leeds Poetry Festival Competition 2021 (‘ Taxed’)
Commended, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2020 (‘Clifford’)
Shortlisted, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2020 (‘Sheaf Square, Sheffield’)
Shortlisted, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2019 (‘Creation Myth; Starlings’)
Commended, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2019 (‘Resolution’)
Commended, Yaffle Poetry Competition 2019 (‘Jewel Carriageway’)
Runner-up, Leeds Peace Poetry Competition 2018 (‘Red Kite, East End Park)
Runner-up, BBC Proms Poetry Competition 2018 (‘Sea Interlude, Blackpool 1987’)
Highly Commended, Peace Poetry Prize 2017 (‘Loiner’)
Joint winner, Remembering Oluwale Prize, 2016 (‘Aire’)
Highly Commended, the Bridport Prize (judged by Roger McGough), 2015 (‘Auntie Lois Astonishes Us All’)
A winner (Poetry on the Buses category) Guernsey International Poetry Competition, 2015 (‘TS Eliot Disguises Himself as an Ocean Liner’)
Helen Mort’s Leads to Leeds project - online - 2015 (‘The Lions of Leeds Town Hall’; ‘Lesson’; ‘The Shopping Capital Versus the Urban Beach’; ‘Thomas Piketty Picks his way Through the Shattered Shopfronts’)
£25 poem, The Troubadour Prize 2014 (‘The Clowns and Cut Confetti’)
Runner up, James Kirkup Memorial Poetry Competition 2012 (‘Barefoot Between the Bridges’)
Performances, workshops & live events
2023 - Devised & led series of workshops for Leeds Libraries for Community History Month
2022 - Co-wrote and performed Poetry Supertram, Writing on Air festival, Chapel FM
2021 - Guest reader, Otley Stanza
2020 - Poem(s) in The View from Olympia
2019 - Performed for Dortmund delegation of LD50 twin city celebrations
2019 - ‘Meet Me at the Man with the Barrell’ performed live on BBC Radio Leeds
2019 - Guest poet, Home and Away, Wolverhampton
2019 - Lead poet, Leeds Intercultural Poetry Language Hub Project
2019 - Guest reader as part of Chapel Allerton Arts Festival
2018 - Guest editor, Algebra of Owls online poetry magazine
2018 - Judge, Otley Spoken Poetry Competition
2018 - Poem ‘Landranger’ featured in the Marsden Walking Weekend
2018 - Collaboration & live reading with Harry Man, North X North East Enemies Project
2018 - Leeds Lieder collaboration with composer Aran Browning
2018 - Poetry at the Parsonage (reading), part of Emily Brontë’s 200th birthday celebrations
2018 - Templar Nights, live reading at the opening of the Marsden Library, Huddersfield Literature Festival
2017 - Derwent Poetry Festival (creative writing workshop) Poetry begins where journalism ends
2016 - Belfast Book Festival (reading)
2016 - Live reading, the Bronte Parsonage, inaugural Poetry at the Parsonage event
2015 - Headingley LitFest (live reading at Headingley Library)
2015 - Collaboration with Nick Allen, Helen Mort’s Leads to Leeds project
2014 - Oblong Cinema, Composition film/poetry collaboration with Chris Hall
2014 - date Monthly creative writing workshop, Leeds Writers Circle (Quickfire series)
2013 - date Producer of Wordsurf, a series of half hour programmes of spoken word and music broadcast on Chapel FM
2011 - Bish Bash Bosh Live reading at Northern Dance
2010 - The Waste Land: The Poetry of Super 8 Expanded cinema collaboration with artist Chris Hall/Art in Unusual Spaces
A brief biography…
Ian Harker is a poet and editor, co-founder of Strix magazine and an organiser of Leeds Lit Fest. He won the Templar Book & Pamphlet competition in 2015, which led to the publication of ‘The End of the Sky’ that same year, and ‘Rules of Survival’ in 2017. He has been shortlisted for the Troubadour and Bridport prizes, and a runner-up in the BBC Proms Poetry Competition. He was also poet in residence at the Henry Moore Institute. His next pamphlet, ‘A - Z of Superstitions’, is forthcoming from Yaffle Press.