Cliff Yates' collection of poems 'Henry's Clock' won the Aldeburgh poetry festival prize and the Poetry Business book and pamphlet competition. During his time as Poetry Society poet-in-residence he wrote 'Jumpstart Poetry in the Secondary School'. He works at Maharishi School, where his students have won many writing competitions, and as a freelance tutor and writer. He has published widely and broadcast on the BBC World Service, Radio 4 and Radio One. He also writes fiction. He received a 2003 Arts Council England Writer's Award.
“Poets like Cliff Yates only come along every so often, like eclipses or rare migrating birds. Cliff Yates should be gazed at, parked near, and written about. People often talk about poets being fresh, and they mean fresh like bread, ready to go stale. Cliff Yates is fresh like the very first crack of dawn is fresh: unique, unrepeatable, full of promise.” Ian McMillan
“Jumpstart is the best aid to the teaching of poetry writing since Sandy Brownjohn’s work of the 1980s.” Gordon Wilson in The Teacher
PUBLICATIONS
'Emergency Rations' (poetry pamphlet: Smith/Doorstop, 2004)
'Henry's Clock' (Smith/Doorstop, 1999)
'14 Ways of Listening to the Archers' (poetry pamphlet: Smith/Doorstop 1994)
'Jumpstart Poetry In The Secondary School' (Poetry Society, 1999, 2nd ed. 2004)
'Oranges: Poems from Maharishi School' (ed) foreword by Andrew Motion (Maharishi School Press, 2001)