His Life and Work
Paulin was educated at Hull University and Lincoln College, Oxford. He worked at the University of Nottingham, first as a lecturer and later as a Reader of Poetry, from 1972 to 1994.
In 1977 he won the Somerset Maugham prize for his poetry collection A State of Justice. More recent work has included The Invasion Handboook (2001). Paulin is also well known for his critical work, including Minotaur: Poetry and the Nation State. Of late, he has championed the work of literary and social critic William Hazlitt, and has taken part in a successful campaign to have Hazlitt's gravestone refurbished.
In Britain, Paulin is most widely known for his appearances on the late-night BBC arts programme Late Review, where he has established a reputation, not only for his acerbic judgements, but also for the unusual quality of some of his language, for instance, describing the sound of Blur's '13' album as "like barbed wire at the bottom of a pond", as well as his frequently bad-tempered arguments with guests, such as Germaine Greer. Paulin continues to be a regular contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review arts programme, despite being quoted in an Egyptian newspaper as saying that Jews living in the Israeli-occupied territories were "Nazis" who should be "shot dead".
Bibliography
- Theoretical Locations, Ulsterman Publications, 1975
- Thomas Hardy: The Poetry of Perception, Macmillan, 1975
- A State of Justice, Faber and Faber, 1977
- Personal Column, Ulsterman Publications, 1978
- The Strange Museum, Faber and Faber, 1980
- The Book of Juniper, Bloodaxe, 1981
- A New Look at the Language Question, Field Day, 1983
- Liberty Tree, Faber and Faber, 1983
- Ireland and the English Crisis, Bloodaxe, 1984
- ''The Argument at Great Tew: A Poem, Willbrook Press, 1985
- The Riot Act: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone, Faber and Faber, 1985
- The Faber Book of Political Verse, (editor), Faber and Faber, 1986
- Fivemiletown, Faber and Faber, 1987
- The Hillsborough Script: A Dramatic Satire, Faber and Faber, 1987
- Seize the Fire: A Version of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Faber and Faber, 1990
- The Faber Book of Vernacular Poetry, (editor), Faber and Faber, 1990
- Minotaur: Poetry and the Nation State, Faber and Faber, 1992
- Selected Poems 1972-1990, Faber and Faber, 1993
- Walking a Line, Faber and Faber, 1994
- Writing to the Moment: Selected Critical Essays, 1980-1996, Faber and Faber, 1996
- The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style, Faber and Faber, 1998
- The Wind Dog, Faber and Faber, 1999
- The Fight and Other Writings by William Hazlitt, (co-editor with David Chandler), Penguin, 2000
- Thomas Hardy: Poems selected by Tom Paulin, (editor), Faber and Faber, 2001
- The Invasion Handbook, Faber and Faber, 2002
- D. H. Lawrence and "Difference": The Poetry of the Present, (with Amit Chaudhuri), Oxford University Press, 2003