Maggie Butt
{{Short description|British poet and novelist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
File:Maggie Brookes-Butt 2024.jpg
Maggie Brookes-Butt is a British poet and novelist.
Background
Maggie Brookes-Butt {{Cite web|title=Maggie Butt|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maggie-Butt/e/B0034PH7RC/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.amazon.co.uk|language=en-gb}} is an ex-journalist and BBC TV producer turned poet and novelist.{{Cite web|last=Leicester|first=Creative Writing At|date=2020-10-17|title=Creative Writing at Leicester: Maggie Brookes, "The Prisoner's Wife"|url=http://creativewritingatleicester.blogspot.com/2020/10/maggie-brookes-prisoners-wife.html|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Creative Writing at Leicester}} Her seventh poetry collection is Wish - new and selected poems{{Cite web |title=Wish: New and Selected Poems |url=https://greenex.co.uk/home/p/wish |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Greenwich Exchange |language=en-US}} (Greenwich Exchange{{Cite web |title=Greenwich Exchange |url=https://greenex.co.uk/ |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Greenwich Exchange |language=en-US}}) January 2025. Her sixth collection everlove,{{Cite web|title=everlove by Maggie Butt|url=https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/product/everlove-by-maggie-butt/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=The London Magazine|language=en-GB}} was published in April 2021 as Maggie Butt by The London Magazine. Her first historical novel, The Prisoner's Wife was published in 2020 {{Cite web|last=Brookes|first=Maggie|title=The Prisoner's Wife|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1118649/the-prisoner-s-wife/9781787464148|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.penguin.co.uk|language=en}} under her maiden name Maggie Brookes.{{Cite web|title=Maggie Brookes {{!}} United Agents|url=https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/maggie-brookes|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.unitedagents.co.uk}} It was published by imprints of Penguin Random House in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada {{Cite web|title=The Prisoner's Wife by Maggie Brookes|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/626329/the-prisoners-wife-by-maggie-brookes/9780593197752|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Penguin Random House Canada|language=English}} and also in the Czech Republic,{{Cite web|title=Maggie Brookes|url=https://www.albatrosmedia.cz/autori/59540095/maggie-brookes/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.albatrosmedia.cz|language=cs-CZ}} Poland,{{Cite web|title=» Żona więźnia|url=https://www.wydawnictwokobiece.pl/produkt/zona-wieznia/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.wydawnictwokobiece.pl}} Portugal, Mexico {{Cite book|url=https://www.planetadelibros.com/libro-la-esposa-del-prisionero/330509|title=La esposa del prisionero - Maggie Brookes {{!}} PlanetadeLibros|language=es-es}} and the Netherlands.{{Cite web|title=De verwisseling, Maggie Brookes {{!}} 9789024589364 {{!}} Boeken {{!}} bol.com|url=https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/f/de-verwisseling/9300000004155958/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.bol.com|language=nl-NL}} Her second historical novel Acts of Love and War,{{Cite book |last=Brookes |first=Maggie |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444494/acts-of-love-and-war-by-brookes-maggie/9781529160451 |title=Acts of Love and War |date=2023-08-03 |language=en}} was published internationally in 2022.
She has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow and Associate Professor at Middlesex University,{{Cite web|title=Dr Maggie Butt - Middlesex University Research Repository|url=https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/profile/532|access-date=2022-01-13|website=eprints.mdx.ac.uk}} where she taught creative writing for 30 years.{{Cite journal|last=Butt|first=Maggie|date=2013-10-31|title=One I made earlier: on the PhD by publication|url=https://textjournal.scholasticahq.com/article/28309|journal=TEXT|language=en|volume=17|issue=Special 22|pages=1–14|doi=10.52086/001c.28309|doi-access=free}} Her poetry has been published in international magazines {{Cite web|title=Volume 19, no. 1|url=https://themanhattanreview.com/issues/vol19no1|access-date=2022-01-13|website=The Manhattan Review|language=en-US}} and anthologies and been turned into choreography and a mobile phone app as well as set to music. She has judged many poetry competitions.{{Cite web|last=harrietspringbett|date=2019-07-18|title=Segora Celebrates with Maggie Butt|url=https://harrietspringbett.wordpress.com/2019/07/18/segora-celebrates-with-maggie-butt/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Harriet Springbett's playground|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Val Ormrod wins Ware Poets Poetry Competition – The Poetry Society|url=https://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/ware/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=poetrysociety.org.uk}}
After completing an English degree, Maggie (then Brookes) became a newspaper reporter at the Kingsbridge Gazette [https://www.kingsbridge-today.co.uk/], and Hendon Times [https://www.times-series.co.uk/ moving] to BBC TV as a documentary writer, producer and director.{{Cite web|title=Search - BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?q=Maggie+Brookes#top|access-date=2022-01-13|website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite web|title=BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/f41eac1576014028a8477737e7dd4e07|access-date=2022-01-13|website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite web|title=BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/p00hr4p0|access-date=2022-01-13|website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}} She later returned to her first love of poetry and fiction, completing a PhD in creative writing from Cardiff University.{{Cite web |title=Cardiff University |url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/ |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Cardiff University |language=en}}
Maggie Butt's first poetry pamphlet, Quintana Roo, was published by Acumen Publications{{Cite web|title=Acumen|url=https://www.acumen-poetry.co.uk/|access-date=2022-01-13|language=en-US}} in 2003. Her first full collection of poetry, Lipstick, [https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/maggie-butt/lipstick/9781871551945 was] published in March 2007 by Greenwich Exchange;{{Cite web|title=Greenwich Exchange|url=https://greenex.co.uk/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Greenwich Exchange|language=en-US}} a launch event was held at Keats House [https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/keats-house in] Hampstead, North London. Her edited collection of essays, Story - The Heart of the Matter, was also published by Greenwich Exchange in October 2007.{{Cite web|title=Story: The Heart of the Matter|url=https://greenex.co.uk/home/p/story-the-heart-of-the-matter|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Greenwich Exchange|language=en-US}} An e-book and MP3, "I Am The Sphinx", were published by Snakeskin online poetry journal in 2009.{{Cite web|title=snake128.htm|url=http://www.snakeskinpoetry.co.uk/snake149.html|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.snakeskinpoetry.co.uk}} Her collection of short poems, "petite", was published by Hearing Eye [https://hearingeye.org/ in] 2010, and turned into a dance piece "Ashes" by choreographer Dr Lesley Main.[https://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/profile/main-lesley]
Ally Pally Prison Camp, published in June 2011 by Oversteps Books,{{Cite web|title=Oversteps Books » Ally Pally Prison Camp|url=https://overstepsbooks.com/cat/ally-pally-prison-camp/|access-date=2022-01-13|language=en-GB}} charts the use of Alexandra Palace [https://www.alexandrapalace.com/ in] North London as a 'concentration camp' for civilian enemy aliens during the First World War. It tells the story of the internees through black and white photographs, the paintings of internee George Kenner, extracts from memoirs and letters, and Maggie Butt's own poems.{{Cite web | url=http://www.overstepsbooks.com/cat/ally-pally-prison-camp/| title=Ally Pally Prison Camp| accessdate=2011-07-05| publisher=www.overstepsbooks.com}} The poems and stories from Ally Pally Prison Camp have been recorded and brought alive for visitors to Alexandra Palace in a locative mobile phone app called Time Stood Still produced by Dr Helen Bendon.[https://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/profile/bendon-helen]
Sancti Clandestini - Undercover Saints, published November 2012 by Ward-Wood Publications,{{Cite web|title=Sancti Clandestini: Undercover Saints|url=http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-poetry-maggie-butt-sancti-clandestini.htm|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk}} is a fully illustrated poetry collection, which proposes some alternative, imaginary saints, including the Patron Saints of liars, looters, rank outsiders, compulsive hoarders, old dogs and infidel girls. These undercover Patron Saints were illustrated by the staff and students of Middlesex University's BA Hons Illustration [https://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/art-and-design/illustration course], from famous and established artists to emerging talents.'If the proof of a poem is in the richness of response it provokes, the illustrations here are that response made visible - a testimony to the subtle layers in this tender but incisive poetry.' Philip [https://www.philipgross.co.uk/ Gross]
Degrees of Twilight {{Cite web|date=2015-07-14|title=The Degrees of Twilight by Maggie Butt|url=https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/degrees-of-twilight-by-maggie-butt/|access-date=2022-01-13|website=The London Magazine|language=en-GB}} was published by The London Magazine in July 2015. These poems use history, memory, work and travel as lenses to examine the inevitable pains and sharp pleasures at the heart of our transient lives.
everlove (2021) uses the artwork of Canadian artist Mary Behrens{{Cite web |title=Mary Behrens - Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/mary-behrens |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=MacDowell |language=en}} as inspiration for ekphrastic poems about the refugee crisis.
Wish - new and selected poems (2025)ncludes poems from Maggie's six previous collections – about the strength of women, concern for our planet, and hope in the power of love – are gathered here alongside bitter-sweet new poems about the joys and fears of a grandmother in this troubled, vulnerable and precious world.
Dr Maggie Butt was Chair of the [https://www.nawe.co.uk/ National Association of Writers in Education] (NAWE) from 2007-2012, and founding Principal Editor of the peer reviewed journal Writing in Practice.{{Cite web|title=Writing in Practice - Vol 1 :: National Association of Writers in Education ::|url=https://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/wip-editions/editions/writing-in-practice-vol-1.html|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.nawe.co.uk}}
Maggie lives in North London. She is married with two grown-up daughters and two grand-daughters.
Books
- Quintana Roo, Maggie Butt (Acumen Publications 2003)
- Lipstick, Maggie Butt, (Greenwich Exchange 2007){{Cite web |title=Lipstick |url=https://greenex.co.uk/home/p/lipstick-1 |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Greenwich Exchange |language=en-US}}
- Story - The Heart of the Matter, Maggie Butt (Greenwich Exchange 2007)
- Petite, Maggie Butt (Hearing Eye 2010)
- Ally Pally Prison Camp, Maggie Butt (Oversteps Books 2011)
- Sancti Clandestini - Undercover Saints, Maggie Butt (Ward-Wood 2012)
- Degrees of Twilight, Maggie Butt (The London Magazine, 2015)
- The Prisoner's Wife, Maggie Brookes (Penguin Random House 2020)
- everlove, Maggie Butt (The London Magazine, 2021)
- Acts of Love and War, Maggie Brookes (Penguin Random House 2022)
- Wish - new and selected poems Maggie Butt (Greenwich Exchange 2025){{Cite web |title=Wish: New and Selected Poems |url=https://greenex.co.uk/home/p/wish |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Greenwich Exchange |language=en-US}}
References
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External links
- [http://www.maggiebutt.co.uk/ Maggie Butt's Website]
- Maggie Brookes' website{{Cite web |title=MAGGIE BROOKES |url=https://www.maggiebrookes.uk/ |access-date=2024-10-04 |website=MAGGIE BROOKES |language=en-US}}https://www.maggiebrookes.uk/
- [http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Dr_Maggie_Butt.aspx Profile at Middlesex University]
- [https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowships/maggie-butt/ Profile at Royal Literary Fund]
- [https://www.kent.ac.uk/learning/academic-advice/literaryfellow.html Profile at University of Kent]
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