{"id":415,"date":"2024-02-17T22:07:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T22:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/?page_id=415"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:52:04","slug":"biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/index.php\/biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Biography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:29% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"544\" height=\"969\" src=\"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG-20210416-WA0000-1.jpg\" alt=\"Blue anorak on beach\" class=\"wp-image-26 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG-20210416-WA0000-1.jpg 544w, https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG-20210416-WA0000-1-168x300.jpg 168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nairn grew up in Rutherglen, a small town beside Glasgow, later attending Glasgow University, where he studied for a BSc and PhD, and, having moved to his new home of Leeds, taught for many years at Leeds Beckett University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite having been fired with enthusiasm for poetry at school by an English teacher, he was nevertheless only able to dabble in the topic until retirement, when he was helped to hone his craft by many very able and expert poets in various workshop sessions over the years, with special mention to the members of the York Stanza Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His work has appeared in Ambit, Orbis, Ink Sweat &amp; Tears, The London Magazine, Stand, The North, Spelt, 14 magazine and Under the Radar (full details on the <a href=\"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/index.php\/publications\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"291\">Publications<\/a> page).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s has had four poems commended in the Hippocrates Competition (not all at once), was highly commended in the Bridport Prize, and commended in the Magma one, as well as winning second prize twice in the Ilkley, has been longlisted in the National Poetry Competition and was awarded first prize in the funniest poem category in the Waltham Forest Competition in 2022. He&#8217;s also very happy to have been one of the two runners-up in the 2025 Poetry Society Stanza Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><br><br>\t<br>\t<br>\t<br>\t<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><style type=\"text\/css\">p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; background: transparent }<\/style><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biography Nairn grew up in Rutherglen, a small town beside Glasgow, later attending Glasgow University, where he studied for a BSc and PhD, and, having moved to his new home of Leeds, taught for many years at Leeds Beckett University. Despite having been fired with enthusiasm for poetry at school by an English teacher, he &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-415","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biography - Nairn Kennedy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nairnkennedypoet.co.uk\/index.php\/biography\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biography - Nairn Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biography Nairn grew up in Rutherglen, a small town beside Glasgow, later attending Glasgow University, where he studied for a BSc and PhD, and, having moved to his new home of Leeds, taught for many years at Leeds Beckett University. 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