Elected: 2005
Year of birth: 1930
Year of death: 2017
Roy Fisher was a British poet and jazz pianist. Fisher has experimented with a wide range of styles throughout his career, largely working outside of the mainstream of post-war British poetry.
Roy Fisher was a poet indifferent to fame, and it was only in his later years that his work was properly recognised for its humour and versatility. He was awarded a Cholmondeley Award in 1981, and in 2010, on Desert Island Discs, Ian McMillan chose his selected poems, The Long and the Short of It, as his Desert Island book, describing Fisher as ‘Britain’s greatest living poet’.Roy Fisher (11 June 1930 – 21 March 2017) was a British poet and jazz pianist. His poetry shows an openness to both European and American modernist influences, while remaining grounded in the experience of living in the English Midlands. Fisher has experimented with a wide range of styles throughout his career, largely working outside of the mainstream of post-war British poetry. He has been admired by poets and critics as diverse as Donald Davie, Eric Mottram, Marjorie Perloff, and Sean O’Brien.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/06/roy-fisher-obituary
Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by our Council of writers – our governing Board. Being elected a Fellow of the RSL is a lifetime honour. This role gives them the opportunity to support other writers, readers and the future of literature. The RSL connects writers in the Fellowship to one another, and to a wider readership.
