Ian Duhig

He worked for 15 years with homeless people before becoming a poet and writer. Duhig has written occasional articles for magazines and newspapers including Moving Worlds, Poetry London, The Poetry Review and The Irish Times. He has also worked on a variety of commissions, particularly involving music. The Clerks—a vocal consort specialising in pre-baroque music—commissioned him to write new poems for 'Le Roman de Fauvel', which was first performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in 2007 and enthusiastically reviewed in The New York Times when performed in that city in 2009. Duhig is an anthologised short story writer, represented in the award-winning 'The New Uncanny' from Comma Press, a creative updating of Freud's famous essay with other writers including A.S Byatt and Hanif Kureishi. He has also written for the stage including a piece with Rommi Smith, directed by Polly Thomas, on 'God Comes Home' at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2009. This considered the ramifications of the case of David Oluwale, a homeless Nigerian immigrant to Leeds, who died after a campaign of persecution by two local policemen. Duhig has subsequently written several poems about this tragic story, some featuring in his book 'Pandorama', and continues to be involved with the David Oluwale Memorial Association. Duhig was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006. Duhig is an uncle of Australian musician Gareth Liddiard, renowned for his work with bands such as The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm.

• Name — Robert Ian Duhig • Born — 9 February 1954 • Birthplace — London, England • Occupation — Poet • Education — University of Leeds • Genre — Poetry

* * * * * • Pandorama. Picador. 2010. * • New and Selected Poems. Picador. 2021. ISBN 978-1-5290-7080-4 • An Arbitrary Light Bulb. Picador. 2024.

• 'Modern Irish Poetry', editor Patrick Crotty, Blackstaff 1995 • 'Emergency Kit', editors Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney, Faber and Faber 1996 • 'The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland After 1945', editor Sean O'Brien, Picador 1998 • 'The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland Since 1945', edited by Simon Armitage and Robert Crawford, Viking 1998 • 'The Bloodaxe Book of 20th Century Poetry, editor Edna Longley, Bloodaxe 2000 • 'Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader', editor David Pierce, Cork University Press, 2000 * • 'The Book of Leeds' (short stories), editors Maria Crossan and Tom Palmer, Comma 2006 • 'The New Uncanny' (short stories), editor Ra Page, Comma 2008 • 'I Wouldn't Start From Here: The Second Generation Irish in Britain' (essays), editors Ray French, Moy McCrory and Kath McKay, The Wild Geese Press, 2019

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• 'The Irish Boomerang' in Poetry Ireland Review, August 2003 * • 'The Holy City' in Moving Worlds, August 2009 • 'The Road' in 'I Wouldn't Start From Here: The Second-Generation Irish in Britain', eds. French, McCrory & McKay (The Wild Geese Press, 2019)