An Interview with Welsh Poet Mike Jenkins

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'Moor Music' by Mike Jenkins

In this innovative new book of poetry, Mike Jenkins continues his life-long obsession with the history and fate of Wales, embodied, in this instance by both the glories of the landscape and the depredations suffered in years of decline.

A view from the window of his writing room across the moors inspires reflections on the dereliction and renewal of the old industrial valleys, in poems like ‘Bonfire on the Waun’ and ‘Came the Ram’.

Mike’s career in teaching left him with a sense of optimism about young people, and with an eagerness to embrace changing times, evident in the lively ‘Einstein at the Comp.’ These poems, like his prize-winning short stories, are full of colourful characters, dialogue, and incident. A love of music and a sensitive awareness of the natural world in an urban context, in poems like, ‘Insomniac Jazz’ and ‘December Roses’ also enliven this new book.

Mike Jenkins lives in Merthyr and is a full-time writer and Creative Writing tutor, having spent over 30 years teaching in secondary education. The author of seven previous poetry collections for Seren, he has also published novels and short stories. He has won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry and Wales Book of the Year, and is former editor of Poetry Wales and founder and co-editor of Red Poets magazine. As well as a blog, he writes regularly for Cardiff City fanzine Watch the Bluebirds Fly and reviews music for the political magazine Celyn.

Buy 'Moor Music' here

For any Mike Jenkins forthcoming readings/events please visit Seren website at www.serenbooks.com/events