Tim Turnbull

Performance Poetry - Winner 2006

It was during his earlier career as Forestry Consultant in South East England that in 1994 Tim Turnbull began to write poetry seriously. Shortly after seeing a performance by the Nuyorican Café poets he became involved in the Slam movement cutting his teeth in North London circuit and subsequently touring America with Slam teams.
Turnbull cites Tony Harrison, John Cooper Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson as his initial poetic influences but for many years he concentrated on music, singing and playing in a number of punk/ska influenced bands.
In 2003 he received an MA with distinction at the prestigious Creative Writing course at Sheffield Hallam with Sean O’Brian. The experience he says broadened his choice of influences from Swift, Rochester, Shelley and Larkin as well as music hall artists such as Max Miller and more experimental poets such as Helen MacDonald and Keston Sutherland.