{{Short description|British poet and critic}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox writer | name = Tom Branfoot | image = Tom Branfoot Headshot Aaron 2024.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Branfoot in 2024 | pseudonym = | birth_date = | birth_place = West Yorkshire, England<ref name=":6" /> | occupation = Poet, critic | language = English | nationality = British | citizenship = | education = BA (Hons), 2021<br/>MA, 2022 | alma_mater = Manchester Metropolitan University<br/>University College London | genre = Poetry<br/>Criticism | notableworks = [https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/this-is-not-an-epiphany/ ''This Is Not an Epiphany'']<br/> [https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/tom-branfoot-boar ''boar''] | awards = The Poetry Business New Poets Prize 2022<br/>Northern Debut Award for Poetry in 2024 | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }}
'''Tom Branfoot''' is a poet and critic from Bradford, England. His pamphlet ''This Is Not an Epiphany'' earned him the 2022 Poetry Business New Poets Prize. Branfoot is currently the writer-in-residence at the Manchester Cathedral, and was awarded a Northern Debut Award for Poetry in 2024.
==Life and education== Branfoot is an English poet from Bradford. He has a BA (Hons) in English and American Literature from the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, awarded in 2021.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=University alumnus appointed as Writer-In-Residence at Manchester Cathedral |url=https://www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/university-alumnus-appointed-writer-residence-manchester-cathedral |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Manchester Metropolitan University |date=21 March 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref> He later studied for an MA in Issues in Modern Culture at UCL.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom's Workshop: Poetry in Crisis |url=https://www.bragwriters.com/tom-branfoot-workshop |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Brag Writers |language=en-UK}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=News: Tom Branfoot wins the New Poets Prize 2022 |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/news-and-events/news/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=UCL News |language=en-UK}}</ref>
In 2020, he expressed disagreement on X (then Twitter) about the name of Manchester-based The Hollow Cow Hotel's bar, which was called 'Plantation Bar' at that time. After the phrase "colonial vibes" was questioned, the hotel apologised for "an ill-advised choice of naming" the bar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flanagan |first=Tom |title='We're sorry': Hotel forced to change 'disgusting' bar name |url=https://au.news.yahoo.com/manchester-hotel-bar-name-change-plantation-054648032.html |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Yahoo! News |date=27 August 2020 |language=en-UK}}</ref>
==Career== Branfoot is a widely published poet, with work, including book reviews, appearing in such journals as ''The Poetry Review'', ''Magma'', ''Washington Square Review'', ''The London Magazine'', ''berlin lit'' and ''bath magg''. For ''Magma'', he has reviewed work by poets Hannah Sullivan (''Was It for This'', Faber, 2022), Jacob Polley (''Material Properties'', Picador, 2023) and Degna Stone (''Proof of Life on Earth'', Nine Arches Press, 2022),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom Branfoot reviews Hannah Sullivan, Jacob Polley and Degna Stone |url=https://magmapoetry.com/tom-branfoot-reviews-hannah-sullivan-jacob-polley-and-degna-stone/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Magma Poetry |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom Branfoot reviews Hannah Sullivan, Jacob Polley and Degna Stone |url=https://magmapoetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Tom-Branfoot-reviews-Hannah-Sullivan-Jacob-Polley-and-Degna-Stone.pdf |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Magma Poetry |language=en-GB}}</ref> work by poets Ali Lewis, Martin Figura and Caroline Bird,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Magma 91 – Contents |url=https://magmapoetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/M91-Contents.pdf |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=Magma Poetry |language=en-GB}}</ref> and by Edwina Attlee and Joyelle McSweeney for ''The Poetry Review''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom Branfoot on Edwina Attlee and Joyelle McSweeney |url=https://poetrysociety.org.uk/publications/vol-114-no-4-winter-2024/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=The Poetry Review |language=en-GB}}</ref> For ''The London Magazine'', he has written about John Burnside, whose "death was particularly unexpected".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Branfoot |first=Tom |title='Everything Shapes What It Encounters': On the Life and Work of John Burnside |url=https://thelondonmagazine.org/essay-everything-shapes-what-it-encounters-on-the-life-and-work-of-john-burnside-by-tom-branfoot/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=The London Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2020, he was highly commended in the "Twitter-based" Creative Manchester Poetry Competition, judged by the poets Lemn Sissay, John McAuliffe and Maryam Hessavi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Winners of Creative Manchester Poetry Competition 2020 announced |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/winners-of-creative-manchester-poetry-competition-2020-announced/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=The University of Manchester |date=16 July 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":5" />
Called one of "Manchester's finest young poets",<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Bennett |first=Jasmine |title=Nocturnal – Tom Branfoot |url=https://mancunion.com/2020/11/07/nocturnal-tom-branfoot/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=The Mancunion |date=7 November 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref> his debut pamphlet, ''I'll Splinter'', was published by Pariah Press as part of their Infernal Editions series in 2021. In 2022, he was awarded the Poetry Business New Poets Prize for his second pamphlet ''This Is Not an Epiphany'', selected by Anthony Anaxagorou.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rory Waterman & Hive New Poets Prize Winners Reading |url=https://www.hivesouthyorkshire.com/rory-waterman-hive-new-poets.html |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Hive South Yorkshire |date=13 August 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> It was published in 2023, and was followed by Branfoot's third, ''boar'', from Broken Sleep Books.
He was praised for a "sharp eye" in a review of ''I'll Splinter'', noting that he could notice "the poetic in the pebbledash and tarmac of the in-between places." Green says that Branfoot writes about "all fathers", and deftly mingles "the epic and the everyday".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Green |first=Hannah |title=I'll Splinter by Tom Branfoot (Infernal Editions) |url=https://tearsinthefence.com/2021/08/12/ill-splinter-by-tom-branfoot-infernal-editions/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Tears in the Fence |date=12 August 2021 |language=en-GB}}</ref> ''This Is Not an Epiphany'' was one of the Broken Sleep authors' book of the year 2023. The poet Charlie Baylis called it full of "[s]parkle and heartbeat". Nathaniel King included Branfoot's ''boar'' in his best books of the year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kent |first=Aaron |title=Books of the Year 2023 |url=https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/post/books-of-the-year-2023 |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Broken Sleep Books |date=2 January 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> In a review, ''boar'' has been noted as "an exercise in poetic exploration".<ref name=":4" /> Writing for The Mancunion, Phedra Broch called Branfoot's pieces "real and raw" in their approach and expression.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Broch |first=Phedra |title=Art in Mancunia: Tom Branfoot |url=https://mancunion.com/2020/01/30/art-in-mancunia-tom-branfoot/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=The Mancunion |date=30 January 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref> In a 2024 article, KLOF Mag looked at another Bradford artist Dean McPhee's track "The Bradford Boar" as a companion piece to Branfoot's ''boar''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blake |first=Thomas |title=Pefkin/Dean McPhee - Ceremonial County Series Vol.V - Norfolk/West Yorkshire |url=https://klofmag.com/2024/07/pefkin-dean-mcphee-ceremonial-county-series-vol-v-norfolk-west-yorkshire/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=KLOF Mag |date=22 July 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> In a 2025 review of ''boar'' published in ''Wild Court'', Kevin Gardner called it "a sequence comprising fragments of local history, the Bradford boar legend", and called Branfoot as "not merely recovering forgotten history but finding the universal human truths buried in local legend." Gardner also noted that the prosaic lines appear as "strictly visual [poetry] in the layout" which refuse to let "the violent slaughter of the beast to remain a legend cushioned by its medieval remoteness."<ref>{{Cite web |title=From the shires: on Greening, Richardson, Branfoot, Self, & Nevett |url=http://wildcourt.co.uk/from-the-shires-on-john-greening-graeme-richardson-tom-branfoot-cameron-self-ron-nevett/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=Wild Court |date=2025-03-20 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
At present, Branfoot holds the position of the writer-in-residence at Manchester Cathedral.<ref name=":0" /> As part of this residency at the cathedral, a position he took up in 2023,<ref>{{Cite journal |title='Finally shall come the poet, worthy that name': exploring the role of a cathedral poet-in-residence |journal=Journal of Beliefs & Values |date=16 January 2025 |doi=10.1080/13617672.2024.2448037 |language=en-GB |last=Harper |first=Sally |pages=1–18|doi-access=free }}</ref> Branfoot has organised several events, including the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition, judged by Rogers Govender, poets Ella Duffy and Emily Oldfield, and himself,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meet the judges of our poetry competition |url=https://manchestercathedral.org/news-events/news/meet-the-judges-of-our-poetry-competition |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Manchester Cathedral |date=27 September 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition 2024 |url=https://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/poetry-opportunities/manchester-cathedral-poetry-competition-2024/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Young Poets Network |language=en-GB}}</ref> and a series of workshops titled "Doubt Wisely" over six weeks in May and June 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Doubt Wisely': Poetry Workshops on Doubt with Tom Branfoot |url=https://pahconline.co.uk/doubt-wisely-poetry-workshops/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=PAHC Online, MMU |date=25 April 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Doubt Wisely – Poetry Workshop Series with Manchester Cathedral Writer-in-Residence Tom Branfoot |url=https://www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/doubt-wisely-poetry-workshop-series-manchester-cathedral-writer |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Manchester Metropolitan University |date=28 April 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='Doubt Wisely': Poetry Workshops on Doubt with Tom Branfoot |url=https://www.manchestercityofliterature.com/event/doubt-wisely-poetry-workshops-on-doubt-with-tom-branfoot/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Manchester City of Literature |language=en-GB}}</ref> With poet Andrew McMillan, he also organised a ‘Christianity in Poetry' event featuring poets Camille Ralphs, Michael Symmons Roberts and Malika Booker.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Conlon |first=Sarah-Clare |title=Camille Ralphs, Michael Symmons Roberts and Malika Booker at Manchester Cathedral |url=https://www.creativetourist.com/event/from-caribbean-ritual-to-an-elizabethan-magus-placing-christianity-in-contemporary-poetry/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=creativetourist.com |date=12 March 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pearson |first=Georgia |title= Graduate Stories: Manchester Cathedral Writer in Residence Tom Branfoot talks about his poetically charged career after leaving university |url=https://aah-magazine.co.uk/2024/graduate-stories-manchester-cathedral-writer-in-residence-tom-branfoot-talks-about-his-poetically-charged-career-after-leaving-university/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=aAh! Magazine |date=2 July 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2023, Branfoot founded the poetry reading series ''More Song'', running out of the Record Café in Bradford on a monthly basis.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Bennett |first=Brandon |title=Poetry Corner: Branfoot's Tongueless Brute |url=https://www.bragwriters.com/post/poetry-corner-branfoot-s-tongueless-brute |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Brag Writers |date=1 February 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> The series has hosted acclaimed poets as well as poets of growing fame like Zaffar Kunial, Fran Lock, and Hannah Copley, nominee for the 2024 T. S. Eliot Prize. ''More Song'' has also collaborated with publishers such as Pavilion Poetry, And Other Stories and The 87 Press.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About: More Song is an innovative and experimental poetry reading series in Bradford. |url=https://www.moresong.co.uk/about |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=More Song |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2024, he was awarded a Northern Debut Award for Poetry, for his collection on "crisis, birdwatching, class, environment, and dwelling" revolving around West Yorkshire landscapes. The book is tentatively titled ''Volatile''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Winners - 2024 Northern Writers' Awards |url=https://newwritingnorth.com/northern-writers-awards/winners-by-year/winners-2024/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=New Writing North |date=25 June 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Northern Writers’ Awards 2024 announced |url=https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/northern-writers-awards-2024-announced/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Northumbria University |date=26 June 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> He was also highly commended in the Solstice Nature Prize for Young Writers 2024, for his poem 'Box', praised by the judge, Gill Lewis, for a powerful imagery.<ref name=":7" />
In 2025, he was one of the StAnza artists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2025 Festival Artists |website=StAnza |access-date=2025-07-17 |url=https://stanzapoetry.org/festival/stanza-2025/2025-artists/ |language=en-GB}}</ref> Branfoot was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (Written) for 'A Parliament of Jets', first published in ''Ambient Receiver''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Spanoudi |first=Melina |title=British Sign Language poets shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry |journal=The Bookseller |date=2025-07-17 |access-date=2025-07-17 |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/british-sign-language-poets-shortlisted-for-the-forward-prizes-for-poetry |issn=0006-7539 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |journal=Publishing Perspectives |last=Anderson |first=Porter |title=The United Kingdom’s Forward Prize Names Its 2025 Shortlists |date=2025-07-17 |access-date=2025-07-17 |url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2025/07/the-united-kingdoms-forward-prize-names-its-2025-shortlists/ |language=en-GB}}</ref> As part of his residency at the Manchester Cathedral, he wrote a poem "considering the contemporary resonances of" the Peterloo massacre of 1819.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Manchester Cathedral's Writer-in-Residence Pens Peterloo Poem |date=2025-08-14 |url=https://manchestercathedral.org/news-events/news/manchester-cathedral-s-writer-in-residence-pens-peterloo-poem |website=Manchester Cathedral |access-date=2025-11-09 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
His debut collection, titled ''Volatile'', is forthcoming from the87press.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Branfoot |first=Tom |date=2025-07-10 |title=Contingency, with Horses |url=https://oxfordpoetry.substack.com/p/contingency-with-horses |website=Oxford Poetry |publisher=Partus Press Ltd |access-date=2025-07-17 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Pamphlets== * ''I'll Splinter'' (Pariah Press, 2021) {{ISBN|9780993037856}} * ''This Is Not an Epiphany'' (New Poets List, 2023) {{ISBN|9781914914508}} * ''boar'' (Broken Sleep Books, 2023) {{ISBN|9781915760272}}
==Awards== * 2020: Highly Commended, Creative Manchester Poetry Competition<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Creative Manchester Poetry Competition 2020 |url=https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/centrefornewwriting/connect/making-a-difference/creative-manchester-poetry-competition-2020/# |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Centre for New Writing, The University of Manchester |language=en-GB}}</ref> * 2022: The Poetry Business New Poets Prize, for ''This Is Not an Epiphany''<ref name=":2" /> * 2024: Northern Debut Award for Poetry<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Winners of the Northern Writers’ Awards 2024 unveiled |url=https://societyofauthors.org/prizes/the-soa-awards/eric-gregory-awards/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=The Bookseller |date=25 June 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref> * 2024: Highly Commended, The Solstice Nature Prize for Young Writers, for 'Box'<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=The Solstice Prize 2024 for Young Writers |url=https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/young-writers-groups/solstice-writing-prize/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Writing East Midlands CIC. |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.moresong.co.uk/about/ More Song]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Branfoot, Tom}} Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Category:Alumni of University College London Category:21st-century English poets Category:English poets Category:Writers from Bradford Category:Year of birth missing (living people)