PETER SCUPHAM was born in Liverpool in 1933, educated at the Perse and, after National Service, at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is married, with three sons and a daughter. Currently he teaches in Hertfordshire and runs, with John Mole, the Mandeville Press, of which he is the proprietor. His books include The Snowing Globe (1972), Prehistories (1975), The Hinterland (1977), Summer Palaces (1980) and Winter Quarters (1983).

TONY HARRISON was born in Leeds in 1937, educated at Leeds Grammar School and the University of Leeds where he read Classics. He spent four years in Northern Nigeria and a year teaching at Charles University, Prague, served as Poetry Fellow in Newcastle-on-Tyne and in Durham, and in 1969 won awards which enabled him to travel to Cuba, Brazil, Senegal and the Gambia. His first major collection, The Loiners (1970), won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. His translations of classical and French dramatic work and of opera libretti for British and American theatres are numerous. Other poetry publications include The School of Eloquence (1978) and Continuous (1981).

GILLIAN CLARKE was born in Cardiff in 1937 and has lived in South Wales for most of her life. She works as a part-time lecturer in Gwent College of Art & Design and edits The Anglo-Welsh Review. Her publications include Snow on the Mountains (1971), The Sundial (1978) and Letter from a Far Country (1982).

ANDREW WATERMAN was born in London in 1940. Since 1968 he has worked at the New University of Ulster, where he is Senior Lecturer in English. His collections of poetry are Living Room (1974), From the Other Country (1977), Over the Wall (1980) and Out for the Elements (1981).

DEREK MAHON was born in Belfast in 1941 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He is married, with two children, and lives in London, where he works as a journalist and screenwriter. His work was brought together in Poems 1962-1978 (1979), which was followed by The Hunt by Night (1982).

JEREMY HOOKER was born in Southampton in 1941 and educated at Southampton University. He has been a Lecturer in English at Aberystwyth since 1965. A View from the Source: selected poems (1982) drew from four earlier collections.

JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1944. He read English at Leeds University and now teaches at Manchester Polytechnic; he has also taught in America and Wales. His book of poems Heart's Desire (1978) included material from his Northern House pamphlet The Important Man.

DAVID CONSTANTINE was born in 1944 in Salford, Lancashire. He read Modern Languages at Oxford and became a lecturer in English at Durham University. In 1981 he became Fellow of German at Queen's College, Oxford. He has published two books of poems: A Brightness to Cast Shadows (1980) and Watching for Dolphins (1983).

DICK DAVIS was born in Portsmouth in 1945. After graduating from Cambridge, he worked as a teacher, first in Yorkshire and
 
later abroad. In 1978 he returned from Iran to England and is now a freelance writer. His books of poetry are In the Distance (1975) and Seeing the World (1980).

CLIVE WILMER was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, in 1945, but grew up in South London, read English at Cambridge, taught abroad in Italy, and then returned to Cambridge where he now teaches. His books of poetry are The Dwelling-Place (1977) and Devotions (1982).

ROBERT WELLS was born in Oxford in 1947. After graduating from Cambridge he worked as a forester in Exmoor and later taught in Iran and Italy. He lectured for a time at the University of Leicester and is now working on a new translation of Theocritus at Oxford. He has published one book of poems, The Winter's Task (1977).

JOHN ASH was born in Manchester in 1948. He read English at the University of Birmingham, taught for a year in Cyprus, and returned to Manchester. His collections of poetry include Casino (1978), The Bed and Other Poems (1981) and The Goodbyes (1982).

JAMES FENTON was born in Lincoln in 1949 and educated at Oxford. He worked as a journalist in England and abroad, in Indo-China and Germany. He is now theatre critic of the Sunday Times. His books include Terminal Moraine (1972), The Memory of War: Poems 1968-1982 (1982) and Children in Exile (1983).

TOM PAULIN was born in Leeds in 1949 and brought up in Belfast. He studied at the Universities of Hull and Oxford and is now a Lecturer in English at the University of Nottingham. His collections include A State of Justice (1977), The Strange Museum (1980) and Liberty Tree (1983).

ANDREW MOTION was born in London in 1952 and educated at Oxford. He lectured at the University of Hull and was later editor of Poetry Review. He is currently poetry editor at Chatto & Windus. His collections include The Pleasure Steamers (1978), Independence (1981) and Secret Narratives (1983).

FRANK KUPPNER was born in Glasgow in 1952. His first book of poems, A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty, will appear in 1984.

ALISON BRACKENBURY was born in Lincolnshire in 1953. She read English at Oxford. Until recently she worked as a librarian in Gloucestershire. Her first book of poems was Dreams of Power (1981). Breaking Ground, her second, is due in 1984.

MICHAEL HOFMANN was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1957, but grew up mostly in England. He read English at Cambridge. His first collection of poems is Nights in the Iron Hotel (1983).