View source for James Fenton

{{about|the poet writing in standard English|the poet writing in Ulster Scots|James Fenton (Ulster Scots poet)|others}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}{{Short description|English poet, journalist and literary critic (born 1949)}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = James Fenton
|image         =
|image_size    =
|caption       = 
|birth_name    = 
|birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1949|4|25|df=yes}}
|birth_place   = [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], England
|other_names   =
|known_for     =
|education     = 
|alma_mater    = [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
|employer      =
|occupation    = Poet, journalist, literary critic
|years_active  =
|spouse        =
|partner       = [[Darryl Pinckney]]
|children      =
|parents       = [[John Fenton (priest)|John Fenton]]
|relations     = 
}}

'''James Martin Fenton''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=80%|FRSL|FRSA}} (born 25 April 1949) is an English poet, journalist and literary critic.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3669373/James-Fenton-21st-century-renaissance-man.html |title=James Fenton: 21st century renaissance man |work=The Telegraph|date=2007-11-18 |access-date=2013-11-29 |location=London |first=David |last=Jenkins}}</ref> He is a former [[Oxford Professor of Poetry]].

==Life and career==
Born in [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], Fenton grew up in [[Lincolnshire]] and [[Staffordshire]], the son of Canon [[John Fenton (priest)|John Fenton]], a [[Biblical criticism|biblical scholar]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4177274/Canon-John-Fenton.html |title=Canon John Fenton |work=The Telegraph|date= 8 January 2009|access-date=2013-11-29 |location=London}}</ref> He was educated at the [[Durham Choristers School]], [[Repton School|Repton]] and [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]. He graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1970.<ref Name="CW">{{cite web |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/james-fenton |title=Professor James Fenton |website=British Council Literature |publisher=[[British Council]] |access-date=2016-01-14}}</ref>

While at school Fenton acquired an enthusiasm for the work of [[W. H. Auden]]. At Oxford, his tutor [[John Fuller (poet)|John Fuller]], who was writing ''A Reader's Guide to W. H. Auden'' at the time, further encouraged that enthusiasm. Auden became perhaps the most significant single influence on Fenton's work.

In his first year at university, Fenton won the [[Newdigate Prize]] for his [[sonnet]] sequence ''Our Western Furniture''.<ref Name="CW"/> Later published by Fuller's Sycamore Press, it largely concerns the cultural collision in the 19th century between the [[United States]] and [[Japan]]. It displays in embryo many of the characteristics that define Fenton's later work: technical mastery combined with a fascination with issues that arise from the Western interaction with other cultures. ''Our Western Furniture'' was followed by ''Exempla'', a poetry sequence later published in ''The Memory of War''. The poem is notable for its frequent use of unfamiliar words, as well as commonplace words employed in an unfamiliar manner.

While studying at Oxford, Fenton became a close friend of [[Christopher Hitchens]], whose memoir ''[[Hitch-22]]'' is dedicated to Fenton and has a chapter on their friendship. Hitchens praised Fenton's extraordinary talent, stating that he too believed him to be the greatest poet of his generation. He also expounded on Fenton's modesty, describing him as infinitely more mature than himself and [[Martin Amis]]. Fenton and Hitchens shared a house together in their third year, and continued to be close friends until Hitchens's death. Fenton read his poem 'For Andrew Wood' at the ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' Hitchens memorial service.<ref>{{Citation |title=James Fenton - For Andrew Wood | date=12 May 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D3KcWVfQS8 |access-date=2023-06-12 |language=en}}</ref>

His first collection, ''Terminal Moraine'' (1972) won a [[Eric Gregory Award|Gregory Award]].<ref Name="CW" /> With the proceeds he traveled to [[East Asia]], where he wrote of the U.S. withdrawal from [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] and the end of the [[Lon Nol]] regime in [[Cambodia]], which presaged the rise of [[Pol Pot]]. The poems featured in his collection ''The Memory of War'' (1982) ensured his reputation as one of the greatest war poets of his time.<ref Name="CW"/>

Fenton returned to London in 1976. He was political correspondent of the ''[[New Statesman]]'', where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens, [[Julian Barnes]] and Martin Amis.<ref Name="CW" /> He became the Assistant Literary Editor in 1971, and Editorial Assistant in 1972.<ref name=jf/> Hitchens had formally recruited Fenton to the [[Socialist Workers Party (Britain)|International Socialists]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Hitch-22: A Memoir |publisher=Atlantic Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781838952334 |location=London |pages=144}}</ref> and earlier in his journalistic career, like Hitchens, Fenton had written for ''[[Socialist Worker]]'', the weekly paper of the [[Socialist Workers Party (Britain)|International Socialists]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Campion |first=Peter |url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=2157 |title=James Fenton |publisher=The Poetry Foundation |access-date=2013-11-29}}</ref> Fenton was an occasional [[war reporter]] in Vietnam during the late phase of the [[Vietnam War]], which ended in 1975. His experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia from summer 1973 form a part of ''All the Wrong Places'' (1988).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asiabythebook.thingsasian.com/2008/06/16/all-the-wrong-places-adrift-in-the-politics-of-the-pacific-rim-by-james-fenton-atlantic-monthly-press/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220633/http://asiabythebook.thingsasian.com/2008/06/16/all-the-wrong-places-adrift-in-the-politics-of-the-pacific-rim-by-james-fenton-atlantic-monthly-press/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-10-04 |title=All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of the Pacific Rim by James Fenton (Atlantic Monthly Press) « Asia by the Book |publisher=Asiabythebook.thingsasian.com |date=2008-06-16 |access-date=2013-11-29 }}</ref><ref>Barbara Korte Represented Reporters: Images of War Correspondents in Memoirs and ... 2009 - Page 17 "The poet James Fenton, for instance, was an occasional war reporter in Vietnam during the late phase of the war. The reminiscences of his experiences in Vietnam, which form a part of All the Wrong Places, declare a literary intent that ..."</ref><ref>Douglas Kerr, ''Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing'', 2008, page 159 "... at the beginning of a journey that would take him to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, James Fenton glanced at the ... Fenton in the summer of 1973 was setting out on a journey to see and write about a war in Asia.</ref> The publication of the book revealed some of Fenton's second thoughts about revolutionary socialism.<ref>''The Listener'' - Volume 121 - 1989 Page 33 "As a revolutionary socialist, Fenton, in 1975, had no illusions about the Stalinist character of Vietnamese Communism but held the ... Am I wrong, or is All the Wrong Places also Fenton's journey to the end of the revolutionary socialist night"</ref> Between 1978 and 1980, Fenton spent a year in [[West Berlin]] as a reporter for ''[[The Guardian]]'', sharing a flat with [[Timothy Garton Ash]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Swain |first=Harriet |title=The suspect Romeo |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |date=11 July 1997 |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/the-suspect-romeo/103674.article |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128231604/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/the-suspect-romeo/103674.article |archive-date=28 January 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=James Fenton |website=[[Berlin International Literature Festival]] |access-date=15 August 2025 |url=https://literaturfestival.com/en/authors/james-fenton/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927100354/https://literaturfestival.com/en/authors/james-fenton/ |archive-date=27 September 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1983, Fenton accompanied his friend [[Redmond O'Hanlon]] to Borneo. A description of the voyage can be found in the book ''Into the Heart of Borneo''.

Fenton won the [[Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize]] in 1984 for ''Children in Exile: Poems 1968–1984''. He was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1994, a post he held till 1999.<ref name=jf/> He was awarded the [[Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry]] in 2007. The American composer [[Charles Wuorinen]] set several of his poems to music, and Fenton served as librettist for Wuorinen's opera ''[[Haroun and the Sea of Stories (opera)|Haroun and the Sea of Stories]]'' (2001, premiered in 2004), based on [[Salman Rushdie]]'s novel.

Fenton has said: "The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation." In response to criticisms of his comparatively slim ''Selected Poems'' (2006), he warned against the notion of poets churning out poetry in a regular, automated fashion.

Fenton has been a frequent contributor to ''[[The Guardian]]'',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jamesfenton |title=James Fenton |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date= 11 June 2008|access-date=2013-11-29 |location=London}}</ref> ''[[The Independent]]'' and ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/james-fenton-2/|title=James Fenton|publisher=New York Review of Books }}</ref> He once wrote the head column in the editorials of each Friday's ''[[Evening Standard]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/columnistarchive/James%20Fenton-columnist-1245-archive.do |title=James Fenton - London Evening Standard |publisher=Thisislondon.co.uk |access-date=29 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110905054255/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/columnistarchive/James%20Fenton-columnist-1245-archive.do |archive-date= 5 September 2011 }}</ref> In 2007, he appeared in a list of the "100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain" published by ''[[The Independent|The Independent on Sunday]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1153578.ece |title=Gay Power: The pink list - This Britain - UK - The Independent |publisher=News.independent.co.uk |date=2006-07-02 |access-date=2013-11-29 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107115957/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1153578.ece |archive-date=7 January 2008 }}</ref>

Fenton's partner is [[Darryl Pinckney]], the prize-winning novelist, playwright and essayist perhaps best known for the novel ''High Cotton'' (1992).<ref>{{cite web|author=David Jenkins 12:17AM GMT 18 November 2007 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3669373/James-Fenton-21st-century-renaissance-man.html |title=James Fenton: 21st century renaissance man |work=The Telegraph|date=2007-11-18 |access-date=2016-12-09}}</ref>

===Musical theatre influence===
Fenton has been influenced in his writing by musical theatre, as evidenced in "Here Come the Drum Majorettes" from ''Out of Danger'':

<poem>"Gleb meet Glubb.
Glubb meet Glob.
God that's glum, that glib Glob dig.
'Dig that bog!'
'Frag that frog.'
Stap that chap, he snuck that cig.'"<ref>Quoted in Neil Corcoran (ed.), ''Do You, Mr Jones?'' (2002), pp. 185–86.</ref></poem>

He was the original English librettist for the musical of ''[[Les Misérables (musical)|Les Misérables]]'' but [[Cameron Mackintosh]] later replaced him with [[Herbert Kretzmer]]. Kretzmer credited Fenton with creating the general structure of the adaptation,<ref name="Tims">{{cite web|last1=Tims|first1=Anna|title=How we made Les Misérables|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/feb/18/how-we-made-les-miserables|website=The Guardian|date=19 February 2013|access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> and Fenton is credited for additional lyrics, for which he receives royalties, as stipulated in his contract.<ref name="Poet who banks on Les Miserables">{{cite web|last1=Murphy|first1=Hayden|title=Poet who banks on Les Miserables|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12700449.Poet_who_banks_on_Les_Miserables/|website=The Herald|date=February 1994 |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* 1968: [[Newdigate Prize]]
* 1971: [[Eric Gregory Award]]
* 1981: Southern Arts Literature Award for Poetry
* 1983: Fellowship of The [[Royal Society of Literature]]
* 1984: [[Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize]]
* 1994: Oxford Professor of Poetry
* 1994: [[Whitbread Prize]] for Poetry, for ''Out of Danger''
* 1999: Honorary Fellowship of [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
* 2003: Fellowship of [[The Royal Society of Arts]]
* 2007: [[Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry]]
* 2015: [[PEN Pinter Prize]] Share With [[Raif Badawi]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/06/jailed-saudi-blogger-raif-badawi-co-winner-pen-pinter-prize |title=Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi named co-winner of PEN Pinter prize |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |first=Mark|last= Brown|date=June 2015 |access-date=16 June 2015}}</ref>
}}

==Books==
* 1968: ''Our Western Furniture'', poetry<ref name=jf>{{cite web|url=http://jamesfenton.com/books/ |title=James Fenton Website: Books Written by James Fenton |publisher=Jamesfenton.com |date=2012-03-10 |access-date=2016-01-14}}</ref>
* 1969: ''Put Thou Thy Tears into My Bottle'', poetry<ref name=jf />
* 1972: ''Terminal Moraine''<ref name=jf />
* 1978: ''A Vacant Possession'', TNR Publications<ref name=jf />
* 1980: ''A German Requiem: A Poem'', Salamander Press, a pamphlet<ref name=jf />
* 1981: ''Dead Soldiers'', Sycamore Press<ref name=jf />
* 1982: ''The Memory of War: Poems 1968–1982'', Salamander Press, 1982, {{ISBN|978-0-907540-39-7}}<ref name=jf />
* 1984: ''Children in Exile: Poems 1968–1984'' [[Random House]], 1984, {{ISBN|978-0-394-53360-5}} These poems combined with those from ''The Memory of War'' made up the Penguin volume, ''The Memory of War and Children in Exile''; published in the United States as ''Children in Exile''; Salamander Press
* 1983: ''You Were Marvellous'', selected theatre reviews published 1979–1981<ref name=jf />
* 1986: ''The Snap Revolution''
* 1987: ''Partingtime Hall'', co-author with [[John Fuller (poet)|John Fuller]], Viking / Salamander Press, comical poems<ref name=jf />
* 1988: ''[[All the Wrong Places (book)|All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of the Pacific Rim]]'', reportage; Viking; [[Atlantic Monthly Press]] (1988); reissued with a new introduction by Granta (2005)<ref name=jf />
* 1989: ''Manila Envelope'', self-published book of poems<ref name=jf />
* 1994: ''Out of Danger'', Fenton considers this his second collection of poems. It contains ''Manila Envelope'' and later poems; Penguin; Farrar Straus Giroux; winner of the Whitbread Prize for Poetry<ref name=jf />
* 1998: ''Leonardo's Nephew'', art essays from ''The New York Review of Books''<ref name=jf />
* 2001: ''The Strength of Poetry: Oxford Lectures'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-19-818707-3}}<ref name=jf />
* 2001: ''A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed'' Viking / [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]<ref name=jf />
* 2002: (As editor) ''An introduction to English poetry'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-374-10464-1}}<ref name=jf />
* 2003: ''The Love Bomb'', verse written as a libretto for a composer who rejected it; [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] / [[Faber and Faber]]<ref name=jf />
* 2006: ''School of Genius: A History of the Royal Academy of Arts'' (2006), a history<ref name=jf />
* 2006: ''Selected Poems'', Penguin<ref name=jf />
* 2006: (As editor) ''The New Faber Book of Love Poems''
* 2012: ''Yellow Tulips: Poems 1968–2011''
* 2012: ''[[The Orphan of Zhao]]'', adaptation of the classic Chinese play for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]]

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[[Andrew Motion]]
*[[Al Alvarez]]
*[[Beat poet]]
*[[Cole Porter]]
*[[Ira Gershwin]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6166/the-art-of-poetry-no-96-james-fenton| title=James Fenton, The Art of Poetry No. 96| first= Robyn|last= Creswell| date=Autumn 2012| journal=The Paris Review | volume=Fall 2012| issue=202}}
* [[Dana Gioia|Gioia, Dana]]. [http://www.danagioia.net/essays/efenton.htm "The Rise of James Fenton"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605074240/http://www.danagioia.net/essays/efenton.htm |date=5 June 2010 }}, ''[[The Dark Horse (magazine)|The Dark Horse]]'' (No. 8, Autumn 1999)
* [[Michael Hulse|Hulse, Michael]]. "The Poetry of James Fenton", ''[[The Antigonish Review]]'' Vol. 58. pp.&nbsp;93–102, 1984
* [[Douglas Kerr|Kerr]], Douglas. "Orientations: James Fenton and Indochina", ''[[Contemporary Literature (journal)|Contemporary Literature]]'', Vol. 35, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994) pp 476–91

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Official website}}
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=2157 Poetry Foundation profile and poems]
* {{British council|id=james-fenton|name=Professor James Fenton}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110727181409/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do;jsessionid=96824A90D74B9F54378B4F483DADCA88?poetId=5576 The Poetry Archive: Profile and poems written and audio]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenton, James}}
[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Formalist poets]]
[[Category:Gay poets]]
[[Category:Gay journalists]]
[[Category:English gay writers]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ poets]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ journalists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:New Statesman people]]
[[Category:Oxford Professors of Poetry]]
[[Category:People educated at Repton School]]
[[Category:People educated at the Chorister School, Durham]]
[[Category:People from Lincoln, England]]
[[Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:21st-century English LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:Socialist Workers Party (UK) members]]