Dr Nikolai Duffy
Dr Nikolai Duffy
Senior Lecturer and Co-Lead of the Poetry Research Group
My profile
Biography
I am a Senior Lecturer and the Co-Lead (with Michael Symmons Roberts) of the Poetry Research Group. I am also the Associate Head of the Postgraduate Arts and Humanities Centre.
My main areas of research contemporary poetry and poetics, critical-creative writing, the intersection between literature, philosophy, and visual art, and 19th-21st century American Literature.
I am currently working on two projects: I am writing a critical-creative monograph on Lyric Hybrids, and I am in the process of completing my first novel.
I am the previous author of:
- UP THE CREEK (Knives Forks and Spoons, 2018); a collection of prose poems
- THE LITTLE SHED OF VARIOUS LAMPS (Very Small Kitchen, 2013), a hybrid work of poetry, prose and essay on the subject of mourning.
- RELATIVE STRANGENESS: READING ROSMARIE WALDROP (Shearsman, 2013); creative literary criticism [#1 Bestseller in USA, Small Press Distribution, April 2014).
- Editor of Rosmarie Waldrop’s selected poems, GAP GARDENING (New Directions, 2016), featured, among others, in THE NEW YORKER, MUSIC AND LITERATURE, LA REVIEW OF BOOKS; Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, 2017.
In addition, I have published essays on a number of subjects ranging from sculpture, contemporary fiction, small press publishing, and poetry. Previous poems have been published in a number of literary journals and magazines, and anthologies, most recently in POETRY REBELLION: POEMS AND PROSE TO REWILD THE SPIRIT (Batsford, 2021). My work has been read and performed internationally, including London, Manchester, Dublin, New York, Providence, Columbus, Ljubljana, and Bochum.In 2019 I was awarded a UNESCO City of Literature residency in Ljubljana.
I also run a small literary press called Like This Press, which specialises in publishing handmade poetry pamphlets and limited edition books-in-boxes.
Academic and professional qualifications
- BA (Hons) English (Goldsmiths, University of London, 1999)
- MA Contemporary Approaches to English Studies (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2002)
- PhD in experimental writing and philosophy (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2005)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
External Examiner Roles
I am currently the External Examiner for the MA Creative Writing: Innovation and Experiment at the University of Salford. From 2015-2018 I was External Examiner for the MA Creative Writing programme at Edge Hill University. I have also been an external programme reviewer at the University of Liverpool and Keele University.
Expert reviewer for external funding bodies
I have peer-reviewed articles for diacritics and US Studies Online. I have also assessed grant applications for the Austrian Science Fund.
Membership of professional associations
Member of the Modern Languages Association, the British Association of American Studies, and the Poetry Society
Teaching
I have been unit leader of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules on the BA English and MA Creative Writing programmes at Manchester Met, including Reading and Writing Poetry, American Poetics, Reading Poetry 2, American Spaces, and Postwar and Contemporary American Literature and Culture.
I have supervised a number of PhD theses, on topics ranging from: poetry and everday sexism; experimental poetics and politics; Finnegans Wake and illustration; writing and the visual Arts; T.S. Eliot and the poetics of place; the language of touch in contemporary poetry, contemporary American literature;
I am currently supervising doctoral theses on plein air poetry, poetry and librettos, poetry and use, and eco-poetry.
I have also examined doctoral research on the practice of critical-creative writing.
Subject areas
Poetry, Creative-critical writing, American Literature
Research outputs
Please find below a list of selected publications:
Books:
- UP THE CREEK (Knives Forks and Spoons, 2018); a collection of prose poems
- THE LITTLE SHED OF VARIOUS LAMPS (Very Small Kitchen, 2013), a hybrid work of poetry, prose and essay on the subject of mourning.
- RELATIVE STRANGENESS: READING ROSMARIE WALDROP (Shearsman, 2013); creative literary criticism
- Editor of Rosmarie Waldrop’s selected poems, GAP GARDENING (New Directions, 2016)
A list of journal articles and poetry publications is available here
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Exhibitions
Adkins, L.B., Duffy, N., Nicolson, M. (2018) ‘Extreme Views’.. [Exhibition] Art Gene Gallery, 11/2018 - 3/2019.
Adkins, L.B., Hurlstone, I., Duffy, N. (2017) Re-Making Histories and the Gaps Between. [Exhibition] The Tetley Centre for Contemporary Art, 21/4/2017 -
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Performances
Adkins, L., Duffy, N. (2019) Notes for a Performance - Weather Permitting. [Performance] Art Gene Gallery, 5/4/2019 -
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Duffy, N. (2025) Common. Goldsmiths Press.
Adkins, L.B., Duffy, N., Buchler, P., Cass, D.N., Hitchen, J. (2018) Notes for a Performance Final Draft: 29 November 2017. Wild Pansy Press - Leeds University.
Duffy, N.L.G. (2016) Up the Creek. The Knives Forks and Spoons Press.
Waldrop, R. (2016) The Selected Poems of Rosmarie Waldrop. New Directions.
Duffy, N.L.G. (2013) The Little Shed of Various Lamps. London: Very Small Kitchen.
Duffy, N.L.G. (2013) Relative Strangeness: Reading Rosmarie Waldrop. Exeter: Shearsman.
Duffy, N.L.G. A Boat to Float on the Flood. Penned in the Margins.
Duffy, N. A Hut on Ludshott Common. With agent.
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Chapters in books
Duffy, N. (2019) 'Unfinish: The Politics of Literary Experiment in Robert Sheppard.' In Byrne, J., Madden, C. (ed.) The Robert Sheppard Companion. Shearsman Books,
Duffy, N.L.G. (2018) 'Robert Sheppard and the Politics of Literary Experiment.' The Robert Sheppard Reader. Shearsman,
Duffy, N.L.G. (2016) 'Postmodern Aesthetics.' The Edinburgh Companion to Critical Theory.
Burman, E., Maclure, M. (2016) 'Deconstruction.' Theory and methods in social research, 2nd ed. Sage Publications,
Duffy, N. (2008) 'Without location: circumlocutions of the neuter in Rosmarie Waldrop.'
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Journal articles
Duffy, N. (2016) 'Reading the unreadable: Kenneth Goldsmith, conceptual writing and the art of boredom.' Journal of American studies, 50(3) pp. 679-698.
Duffy, N. (2013) 'Against metaphor: Samuel Beckett and the influence of science.' Diacritics, 41(4) pp. 36-58.
Duffy, N.L.G. (2012) 'Rosmarie Waldrop and Theories of Translation.' 452ºF: Journal of Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature, 7pp. 24-39.
Duffy, N. (2012) 'American inheritance: Steve Erickson and the pursuit of happiness.' European Journal of American Culture, 31(1) pp. 41-53.
Duffy, N. (2010) 'Among Other Things; or, Sculpture Beyond Identity.' MOSAIC-A JOURNAL FOR THE INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF LITERATURE, 43(2) pp. 1-18.
Duffy, N.L.G. (2007) 'The Poetics of Emergency.' Jacket2, 32
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Other
Adkins, L., Duffy, N., Aubrey, K., Kettle, A., Biggs, L., Williams, C., Bonnell, S., Royle, N., Bryne, E., McCullagh, J., Cooper, D., Raven, L., Dixon, S., Schoene, B., Evans, P., et al, (2017) Made in Translation.
Duffy, N. Correspondence.