Toby Rivas

Poetry - Shortlisted 2012

Toby first moved from Somerset to Northumberland to study history and archaeology. Here he discovered a love of the wild northern landscapes which were to have a big impact on his poetry. Rivas won the Eric Gregory Award in 2005 and the Faber New Poets award in 2009. He is currently in the planning stages of an ambitious, multi-stranded project which has its roots in his archaeological past, beginning with a six-week walk that retraces the medieval pilgrimage route between Holy Island in Northumberland and Walsingham in Norfolk. He says, “I am seeking new ways to develop [my poems] visually through the use of marginalia, addenda, glyphs, aspects of numerology and so on, so [they are] also a visual record of thought, experience and (particularly religious) doubt…”.