Roland John spent some time travelling widely in Europe and the Middle East, on his return he founded the Hippopotamus Press, a small, independent poetry publishing house specialising in full collections from the new, the neglected and the unfashionable
His verse, translations, criticism, book reviews have appeared in most journals both here and abroad including, Acumen, Agenda, Envoi, The Formalist (USA), Kamadhenu (USA), Litteratura (Zagreb), New Lauren Review (USA), Pembroke Magazine (USA), PN Review, The Poetry Review, The Poet’s Voice, Poetry Wales, Scripsi (Australia), South Coast Poetry Journal (USA), Word and Image (Holland). His work has appeared in a number of anthologies.
He is particularly interested in the poetry of Ezra Pound and apart from articles on The Cantos for specialist magazines, he has also written a major critical book A Beginner’s Guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound and given talks and lectures on Pound and his work. He is an occasional assessor of academic and research papers for Paideuma: the Journal of Ezra Pound Scholarship (University of Maine).
Although he has taught poetry in schools, colleges and universities, he has for most of his life promoted poetry through his publishing house and as a magazine editor. He is a tutor for The Poetry Society. He regularly gives talks on poetry, workshops, how to get published and other aspects of the poetry world. Although born in South London he gave up city living in 1989 for the country. He now lives in Somerset close to the Mendip hills, where he ministers to four tortoises and walks two lurcher dogs.
Fax: 01373 466653