Chris Torrance

Chris Torrance (born 1941) is a poet and musician associated with the British Poetry Revival.

Born in Edinburgh, Torrance grew up in Londonand moved to rural Walesin 1970. He has been teaching creative writing at the Cardiff University since 1976. He performs literary cabaret with the poetry and music group Poetheat, which he co-founded in 1985with composer Chris Vine and which is now called Heat Poets. Torrance is a self-styled 'hippie' and his work shows the influence of the Beats, especially Gary Snyderand an interest in the matterand monuments of ancient Britain, including such 'magical' or religious phenomena as ley lines. He has also expressed an admiration for the writings of Charles Olsonand David Jones. Torrance has featured in a number of key Revival anthologies, including Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain(1969), Conductors of Chaos(1996) and Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970(1999). His major work is the ongoing Magic Doorsequence, of which seven books have been published to date.

[edit] Selected publications

Green Orange Purple Red (1968)
Aries under Saturn and Beyond Acrospirical Meanderings in a Tongue of Time (1969)
The Magic Door (1975)
Mirages (1975)
The Florentine Sonnets (1976)
Citrinas (The Magic Door, Book 2) (1977)
The Rainbringer (1977)
Heat Sonnets (1979)
The Diary of Palug's Cat (The Magic Door, Book 3) (1980)
The Book of Brychan (The Magic Door, Book 4) (1982)
Cylinder Fragments of the Twentieth Century (1982)
The Slim Book/Wet Pulp (The Magic Door, Book. 5) (1986)
Southerly Vector/The Book Of Heat - Further Books of the Magic Door (1996)