Barry Tebb was born in Leeds in 1942. He studied English at Leeds Training College and sat at the feet of a series of Gregory Fellows in Poetry at the University of Leeds including Martin Bell, Peter Redgrove, Jon Silkin and David Wright. His first collection ‘The Quarrel with Ourselves’ was praised by John Carey in ‘The New Statesman’ and he appeared in Three Regional Voices alongside Michael Longley and Ian Crichton-Smith. He edited Five Quiet Shouters which included work by the then unknown Angela Carter. In 1995 he founded Sixties Press and has edited the magazines, Literature and Psychoanalysis, Leeds Poetry Weekly and Poetry Leeds. His first novel ‘The Great Freedom’ was published in late 2004 and in 2005 he published his autobiography ‘Dancing to Nobody’s Tune’ and ‘The Sixties Press Anthology of Gregory Fellows’ Poetry’ (with Debjani Chatterjee). He has also published two volumes of selected poems, ‘Tranquillity Street’ (2003) and ‘Selected Poems 1964 – 2004 (2004) and a Collected Poems in 2003, in which year he also published ‘Kith and Kin: Experiences in Mental Health Caring’. In 2006 he published ‘Beyond Stigma: The Experiences of Mental Health Survivors’ and edited ‘The Real Survivors Anthology’. He is a passionate admirer of modern French Poetry and is currently trying to raise funds for the translation and publication of the two volume Gallimard Anthologie de la poésie française du xxe siécle. In recent years he has come increasingly under the influence of work of the French poets Bonnefoley, Apollinaire and Jacques Réda. His other great passion in life is psycho-analysis, where his chief interest lies in the work of the highly controversial French analyst, Jacques Lacan. Barry Tebb has been a mental health carer since the mid eighties and campaigns for better mental health facilities nationwide.
