Dean Parkin

Norfolk poet

'Dean Parkin was always younger than he looks but is now catching up. He's just published his second chapbook of poems, Just Our Luck in March 2008 which includes poems about broccoli, insect swallowing, a country held together with rusty staples and sticky tape, a swan machine and Stanley Unwin.

This follows Irresistible to Women, which was published in 2003 and contains offbeat, tender and funny stories of communication breakdowns.

He has had a poem, featuring pubic hair, nestling nicely between Ruth Padel and Tom Paulin in the Forward Anthology.

He was nearly the oldest Arvon Jerwood Young Poet, a mentoring scheme which saw him work with the poet and editor Christopher Reid.

He has given readings at festivals, colleges and pubs and has run workshops in prisons, schools and on a NATO base in Germany. He didn't know there was a NATO base in Germany until then.

He is poet-in-residence on the Roy Waller Show on BBC Radio Norfolk, the longest running show on BBC local radio (well, probably. Okay, I don't know. Lemme get back to you on that).

He can also be quite friendly and is not at all scary like some poets he could mention.'