Staff Profile

Qualifications

DPhil in English, Balliol College, Oxford

MSt in English (1900-Present), Balliol College, Oxford

BA (Hons) English Literature, Durham University

Research Interests

My work to date concerns 'later' modernisms, primarily in poetry. My first monograph, Charles Olson and American Modernism: The Practice of the Self (OUP 2018), investigated the ‘remaking’ of literary and visual modernism in the first decade after 1945, reading the work of American poet Charles Olson alongside contemporary American painting and music. I have written on several other aspects of late modernist poetry, including questions of attention, language, and media change in American 'Language' writing and the work of poets R.F. Langley and Tom Raworth.

Current Research

I am currently completing an edition of the letters of Tom Raworth, a project supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant. Recently, I began work on a new project on British Surrealism which will trace the emergence of the movement through the lives of five British Surrealist poets and artists. 

Postgraduate Supervision 

I welcome inquiries from prospective research students in any of my areas of expertise.

I am taking research leave in semester 1 2021/22. In semester 2 I am module leader for American Poetry Now (SEL3397).

• Byers M. "Whirls at Whim": Tom Raworth, Attention, and Media Form. Modernism/Modernity 2021. In Press.
• Byers M. Paperworks: 'Language' Writing and Media Change. Textual Practice 2021, 35(2), 333-352.
• Byers M. Archival Poetics: Containing Multitudes. In: Linda Anderson, Ahren Warner, and Mark Byers, ed. The Contemporary Poetry Archive: Essays and Interventions. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
• Anderson L, Byers M, Warner A, ed. The Contemporary Poetry Archive: Essays and Interventions. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
• Byers M. Charles Olson and American Modernism: The Practice of the Self. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018.
• Byers M. Moving Metres: Hilda Morley and Gestural Abstraction. Paideuma 2017, 44, 259-279.
• Byers M. Muddling Modernity: Review of Granular Modernism, by Beci Carver. Journal of Modern Literature 2017, 40(3), 157-60.
• Byers M. R.F. Langley: Seeing Things. English 2017, 66(255), 331-350.
• Byers M. 'Contemporary Olson, ed. by David Herd (review)'. Modernism/modernity 2016, 23(2), 484-486.
• Byers M. Imagining Uncertainty: Charles Olson and Karl Popper. Philosophy and Literature 2015, 39(2), 443-58.
• Byers M. Egocentric Predicaments: Charles Olson and the New York School of Music. Journal of Modern Literature 2014, 37(4), 54-69.
• Byers M. 'Hilda Morley and the Painters'. Contemporary Women's Writing 2014, 8(3), 262-280.
• Byers M. 'Environmental Pedagogues: Charles Olson and R. Buckminster Fuller'. English 2013, 62.238, 248-68.