Censored Poems

John Hartley Williams was born in Cheadle, Cheshire, England on February 7, 1942. He received a degree in English literature from Nottingham University. He taught English in France and then became an English lecturer at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia followed by the University of Cameroon. He received an MPhil from London University. In 1976, he was appointed to a lectureship at the Free University of Berlin.

His first collection of poetry, Hidden Identities, was published in 1982. His other poetry collections include Bright River Yonder, Canada, and The Golden Age of Smoking. He wrote several books including Ignoble Sentiments, and Death Comes for the Poets and Writing Poetry and Getting Published with Matthew Sweeney. He also wrote pamphlets including A Poetry Inferno and works of translation including Marin Sorescu's Censored Poems and Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia. He died from cancer on May 3, 2014 at the age of 72.

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