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Desmond Graham is a poet, co-translator, critic and editor of war poetry, biographer of Keith Douglas and Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Newcastle University.

The author of eleven collections of poetry, his work has been published internationally, including three volumes in Polish translation.

He has worked extensively as co-translator, with other poets, academics and students particularly in Poland and Germany, leading workshops and preparing publications.

His critical publications on First World War poets have become standard texts.

‘Poetry of the Second World War: An International Anthology’ (1994) brought to readers in English for the first time, a worldwide range of poetry from World War II.

A reviewer and teacher of contemporary poetry since 1961, he was invited to give the Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures of 2006.

A lifelong engagement in Keith Douglas, the Second World War poet, has led to the first biography, the first authoritative collection of the poems, and editions of Douglas’ prose. He is the executor of The Keith Douglas Estate.

His decades of professional friendship with the University of Gdańsk were recognized in March 2018 when he was awarded ‘The Gold Medal of the University of Gdańsk: Doctrinae Sapientiae Honestati’.

Awarded The Gold Medal of the University of Gdańsk, March 2018