John Rice is a poet, storyteller, writer-in-education, and photographer who has published numerous books for both children and adults. A selected bibliography is below.
Known across the country for his exhilarating school visits, he has also appeared on TV, has been heard on the radio, and still finds time to exist as a real person!
John currently splits his time between working as the Poet-in-Residence for SPT, the regional transportation service, and visiting schools across the north-west.
Early years
John Rice was born in Possilpark, Glasgow, and spent the first few years of his life in Blackhill Camp, a temporary settlement in north Glasgow that housed families just after the devastation of the Second World War.
At the age of five, his family moved to Saltcoats, in Ayrshire, where he attended school and then college in Irvine. In 1966, he left Scotland to join the Army’s Intelligence Corps where he studied Arabic and became a translator in the Middle East.
A Life in the Arts
After his military service he settled in Kent where he and his wife Clare brought up three children. From 1970 onwards, John had a number of posts in the arts. He worked as a manager with the Arts Council, as director of an arts centre and for 17 years as senior arts manager with Kent County Council.
Full Circle
His secondary career throughout was as a poet and storyteller and following early retirement in early 2008 he decided to become a full time writer. At the start of John’s first term as Glasgow’s Poet-in-Residence in September 2008, he said: “The appointment in Glasgow is a wonderful opportunity for me to return to the city of my birth to live and work as a professional poet. Glasgow is famous for its wealth of writers and poets – I’m proud to take my place among them after a lifetime away.”
Recent Books:
- Guzzling Jelly with Giant Gorbelly (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2004) ~ £3.99
- Scottish Poems ~ editor, (Macmillan, 2005) ~ £6.99 hardback, £4.99 paperback
Books for Children:
- An Odd Kettle of Fish with Brian Moses & Pie Corbett (Macmillan, 1995)
- Down at the Dinosaur Fair illustrated by Toni Goffe (Nelson, Story Chest, 1993)
- Dreaming of Dinosaurs illustrated by Charles Fuge (Macmillan, 1992)
- Bears Don’t Like Bananas illustrated by Charles Fuge (Simon & Schuster, 1991)
- Rockets & Quasars (Aten Press, 1982)
- Zoomballooomballistic (Aten Press, 1981)
Books for adults (now out of print):
- The Dream of Night Fishers: Poems & Photographs of the Scottish Islands
- (Scottish Cultural Press, 1998)
- Landscape, Coastscape, Dreamscape: Poems about Kent (Aten Press, 1991)
Editor:
Books
- Scottish Poems (Macmillan, 2005)
- The Scarpfoot Zone with David Shields & Michael Curtis (Aegis Press, 1996)
- Poetry South East (Arts Council)
Arts/Literary Magazines
- Kent Arts Now (Kent County Council’s quarterly arts magazine, 1995 – 2005)
- South East Arts News (Arts Council South East arts magazine, 1978-1985)
- South East Arts Literary Review (Arts Council South East’s quarterly, 1978- 1985)
Journalism:
- Times Education Supplement, Child Education, Junior Education, The Literacy Club
Radio & Television:
- Radio 2 Arts Programme, Radio 4 Literary Quiz show,
- ‘Into the Fifth Continent’ (half-hour programme about the Romney Marsh) Radio 4
- BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Kent and other local stations
- Cbeebies programmes: Jackanory, A Bear Behind, English Express, Poetry Pie and Green Balloon Club
- BBC South East Today, BBC Alba
- Channel 4, Kentish Rhymes, a half-hour television programme for Seeing & Doing series
Anthologies etc.
Poems included in over 300 contemporary anthologies in the UK, Australia, Sweden, USA, South Africa etc. Also various recordings on CD and video. Poems recorded by actors such as Stephen Tompkinson and Emma Chambers (Alice in ‘Vicar of Dibley’) and set to music by composers including Mervyn Watkins, Nigel Morgan, Phamie Gow and Irish singer/songwriter Padraigin Ni Uallachain.
Hello John
I believe our creative practitioner projects are to overlap at Gilsland School and that we will be working together on March 4th in school. I thought I’d let you have my contact details so we can be in touch ahead of then – I’m in the process of planning my sessions with the school but won’t know too much more until my planning/CPD day with them on January 5th. I look forward to meeting you though and hope we have some fun!
Best wishes,
Kim
Hi John,
how are you and Clare keeping? I’ve just been reading your website, what a lot of lovely things you’ve been doing? Steve and I are still in Wales, and I go back to Kent often. We’re actually getting married in May! Have been trying to kickstart literature events in Kent again under the Inscribing the Island banner. If I can get some funding would you be interested in doing something? If so let me know your costings. I’m thinking next year really, with the February half-term week activities for children.
Love to you both,
Maggie
hi john you came 2 my school a cupple of months ago … i really enjoyed your poetry and story telling you were very funny. ive been 2 scotland befor it was great i want 2 go again !
Hi John,
I recently found my signed copy of “Bears don’t like bananas” that my dad gave to me when I was little. I am an aspiring poet myself and I wondered if you had any tips of how to get your work published.
Thanks
Dear Katherine,
Sorry for the delay in answering your message but I’ve just returned from a short holiday in Abergavenny in Wales. Good to hear that you still have BDLB…sometimes it sells for £150 on ebay!!!! I don’t get a penny of course…poets never do benefit from their work! Also good to hear you are keen on writing yourself. But of course publishing like everything else at the present time is having a downtime. A few years ago Macmillan Children’s Books (the publisher of my children’s poetry) would publish about 24 poetry anthologies and single poet collections, now it’s about four per year. So it’s a hard time for writers. If you’d like to send me a few of your poems, I could then give you some advice about getting them ‘out and about’. My home address is The Old Bull Hull, Briggflatts Lane, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5HN. Email poetjohnrice@btinternet.com
On we go…
John
Hi john its megan from sedbergh here please can you come back into our school again
i miss doing all your fun poetrywork shops . every time our teacher says theres a poet coming in i pray its going to be you .
well i live in sedbergh so you can visit me any time xxx
p.s good luck with your poems bye bye enjoy your day …
hi its megan from sedbergh please write back i have to ask you a question
oh i will ask you it now ..
i have wrote some great poems for you to read so if you can stop by at my home that would be great i would love you to read them p.s i really do miss your fun cool workshops so please do some with us again ….
thanks soooooooo much
megan
Hello John – it was good to see you on Winder the other day when I got the chance to snap the snapper: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php fbid=10150602293924108&set=a.10150602293734108.439626.619619107&type=1&theater
cheers, David
Hi John, I was taking a short-cut along Biggins Wood Road with my wife today and I suddenly said to her that when I was 18, back in ’72, I knew this poet called John Rice that lived along here.
Having been away from Folkestone since Uni, and only moving back to Folkestone three years ago, I wondered what had happened to you – and with the magic of the internet found your fascinating site. Glad to see you still inspiring the artist in people!!
Alan