Stuart Campbell

My interest in writing developed from playing traditional songs and music, initially concentrating on song-writing, but poetry was also very much part of that whole activity. Although I’ve been writing since my school days, I only started to send my work to publishers in 1995 (I had a long apprenticeship). Since then I've had a fairly constant stream of poems published in books, magazines and elsewhere. That's probably the result of persistence as much as anything else; I think writing the poems is only part of the job. I do not have an academic or professional literary background but, as a qualified Social Worker, the use of words (whether written or spoken), communicating with people is the basis of my professional life. I wouldn't, however, claim that my professional background allows me to somehow have more of an insight into ‘real life’ than any body else (in fact, it could be argued that my professional work is quite abstract). It does, nonetheless, have a bearing in terms of psychology, sociology and things like anthropology influencing my poetry. I'm also interested in current affairs, philosophy, art and some bits of science. Although it can be argued that who I am cannot be separated from what I write, I am only very rarely the subject of the poem; I don't think I could be described as a 'confessional poet'. I'm inclined to view writing as a way of actively engaging with my environment, in the widest sense, and my poetry has increasingly tended to respond to particular concerns or explore specific themes. I think this probably results in me working with a conscious determination, rather than relying purely on intuition. I have also written for the outdoor press and contributed the route descriptions (almost a literary sub-genre) for new rock-climbs on the Moray coast, which forms a section in the 'Northeast Outcrops' climbing guide, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club. I occasionally write essays and reviews for the literary press and am an editorial advisor for Northwords Now magazine. My poetry has won a few prizes in local and national competitions like the Ottakars / Faber competition 2006, the Poetry News Competition 2003 and the Royal Lochnagar Distillery International competition 2002. I was Shortlisted for Poetry Society/ BT e-poetlaureate 2000 Prize and the Robert Louis Stevenson Award in 2006. I've also read for or been featured in BBC radio programmes, like 'Open Country' (Radio 4) and 'Mountain Tales' (Radio Scotland).