Carl Kears

My research examines the poetry of early medieval England and the reception and adaptation of Old English literature in contemporary culture. I am particularly interested in the materiality of poetry and in questioning the ways in which burned, smudged, glossed or unfinished pages of early medieval poetic codices ask to be read and re-read as they move through time. My training as a medievalist informs my approach to modern and contemporary poetry, which continues to examine the archives and small presses of the British Poetry Revival and explore the ways independent publishers, renegade poets and reactionary artists resourced Old English poetry and early medieval manuscripts in the 20th century. I have published on the re-use of Old English by the poet and editor Eric Mottram and I am the co-editor of Medieval Science Fiction (KCLMS/Boydell, 2016). I am currently writing a book about one of the four major manuscripts of Old English poetry: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11.