Barry Tebb



Barry Tebb (born 1942) is an English poet, publisher and prose author.

Life
Tebb was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

His poetry was first published by Alan Tarling's 'Poet and Printer Press' in the sixties, along with Ted Hughes, Michael Longley and Iain Crichton Smith. His first collection was praised by John Carey in the New Statesman]] and his work was included in the Penguin anthology Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain.

After a 20-year writer's block he began to write again in 1990. Appalled by the state of poetry publishing, in 1993 he founded Sixties Press, which has published over 40 books and pamphlets.

Tebb's own Selected Poems, The Lights of Leeds was published by Redbeck Press in 2001.

Among the many writers Sixties Press has published are Daisy Abey (first novel Like the Wind, 2003, republished by Vijitha Yapa in Sri Lanka in 2005 and given enthisiastic reviews by, among others, Carl Muller, in the Daily News): one of her poems has been chosen for the Norton Anthology Eastern Voices to be published in 2007. Other poets published by the press include Kim Taplin, Debjani Chatterjee, Thomas Blackburn, James Simmons, Jon Silkin, W. D. Snodgrass, Martin Bell, Mark Floyer, Michael Haslam, Jeremy Reed, John Horder, John Heath Stubbs, Edward Lucie-Smith and Brenda Williams.

Tebb's novel Pitfall Street chronicles his upbringing in 40s working class Leeds (where Peter O'Toole, Richard Hoggart, Tony Harrison, Keith Waterhouse also grew up)and gives a hilarious account of the many Gregory Fellows in Poetry at Leeds University he knew well, especially Peter Redgrove and Jon Silkin. With Debjani Chatterjee he edited The Sixties Press Anthology of Gregory Fellows Poetry. His autobiography, The Fiddler and His Bow appeared in 2005 and 'The Nostalgia Bus: Collected Poems and Selected Prose' will appear in late 2007. Tebb is also a passionate campaigner (with Brenda Williams) for better mental health services. His Life and Death in Camden and Censored in Camden attest to this.

He has edited two major anthologies of poetry and prose, Beyond Stigma and The Real Survivors Anthology. Now an OAP he devotes his time to being a carer, writing, campaigning and editing. He has over 100 Google listings and runs six websites, including www.sixtiespress.co.uk and www.criticalobs.co.uk.