The PPRG was formed with
the hope that discussion of poetry and poetics would further the
practice and thinking behind innovative poetry. It became more than
that with the interaction of the people within it. It became a society
of friends of the art of writing poetry, which was gratifying. It
unconsciously recruited some local writers to Edge Hill's PhD programme.
It is difficult to remember a time before that when there was no sense
of vital poetry scenes in Liverpool (or the North West) or a thriving
research culture at Edge Hill. The PPRG played its part in developing
all of this. When I arrived in Liverpool in 1996 there was literally
nobody there: Geoff Ward and Sean Bonney had left the city; somebody
mentioned a Cliff Yates in Skem. We corresponded. Its current state
again combines postgraduates, staff and poets outside the university.
It's a deliberate loose fit.
