Donald Atkinson

Donald Atkinson was born and grew up in Yorkshire. After a career in teaching and youth theatre, his poetry first came to public notice in 1988 when he won First Prize in both the Peterloo Poets and the TLS Cheltenham Festival competitions. In 1990, his collection A Sleep of Drowned Fathers (Peterloo, 1989), won the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize for Best First Collection of its year. In 1995, he was awarded a Writer's Bursary by the Arts Council of England. He lived for three years on the...See more

Donald Atkinson was born and grew up in Yorkshire. After a career in teaching and youth theatre, his poetry first came to public notice in 1988 when he won First Prize in both the Peterloo Poets and the TLS Cheltenham Festival competitions. In 1990, his collection A Sleep of Drowned Fathers (Peterloo, 1989), won the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize for Best First Collection of its year. In 1995, he was awarded a Writer's Bursary by the Arts Council of England. He lived for three years on the small island of Rousay in the Orkneys before moving to West Yorkshire in 1999. See less