02 Jul 08

Geoffrey Hill will give a public reading of his poetry in Keble College Chapel

Eminent poet and Oxford alumnus Geoffrey Hill is the subject of a two-day conference at the University this week, where he will appear in conversation the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The conference – Geoffrey Hill and his contexts - starts today (Wednesday 2 July) and is held at Geoffrey Hill’s former college, Keble College, where he is also an Honorary Fellow.

Professor Dame Averil Cameron, warden of Keble College, said: 'This will be the first major international conference on the work of Geoffrey Hill, increasingly recognised as the pre-eminent post-war English poet. Organised by two members of the English Faculty, it will present new research on the whole body of Hill’s work, both from eminent figures in the field and younger scholars.

'Geoffrey Hill published his early poem ‘Genesis’ in a Keble literary magazine, The Clock Tower, while still an undergraduate, and there will be a display of the manuscript during the exhibition.'

The session with Rowan Williams, a former Canon of Christ Church, will take place today. Scholars from across Europe, North America, and Asia will also deliver papers on many aspects of Hill’s work.

On Thursday evening Geoffrey Hill, whom A.N. Wilson called ‘probably the best writer alive, in verse or in prose’, will read a selection of his poetry.

Dr Peter McDonald, of Christ Church, is one of the Oxford University speakers and will discuss '"But to my task": Later Hill, Poetry, and Civil Power’.

Geoffrey Hill’s latest work is Collected Critical Writings, published by Oxford University Press. It gathers more than forty years of Hill’s published critical work and includes two new collections.