Michael Laskey
Michael George Laskey (born 15 August 1944) is an English poet and editor. Life. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Laskey was educated at Gresham's School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he read English. After Cambridge, Laskey worked for ten years as a teacher in secondary schools and further education in Spain and England. Laskey has published four poetry collections, including "New & Selected Poems" (2008), and three pamphlets. In 1989, Laskey founded the international Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and served as its director for ten years. He subsequently became chairman of The Poetry Trust (the organisation that runs  the Festival), 2003–2008. In 1991, with Roy Blackman he founded the poetry magazine "Smiths Knoll", and since 2002 has edited it (with Joanna Cutts). In 2005 he was awarded an Arts Council International Writing Fellowship at the Banff Centre in Canada. Laskey now works as a freelance writer, running workshops and teaching creative writing for many organisations. including the University of East Anglia, the Arvon Foundation, the Open College of the Arts, and in schools. Laskey is married to a general practitioner, and they have three sons, including the actor Jack Laskey. Since 1978, they have lived in Suffolk. Michael