Editing Andrew Motion (section)

==Career==
Between 1976 and 1980, Motion taught English at the [[University of Hull]]<ref Name= "AM"/> and while there, at the age of 24, he had his first volume of poetry published. At Hull, he met the university librarian and poet [[Philip Larkin]]. Motion was later appointed as one of Larkin's literary executors, which would privilege Motion's role as his biographer following Larkin's death in 1985. In ''Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life'', Motion says that at no time during their nine-year friendship did they discuss writing his biography and it was Larkin's longtime companion [[Relationships that influenced Philip Larkin#Monica Jones|Monica Jones]] who requested it. Motion reports how, as executor, he rescued many of Larkin's papers from imminent destruction following his friend's death.<ref>Benton, Michael, Benton ''Literary Biography: An Introduction'' Wiley-Blackwell pp&nbsp;192–200 {{ISBN|1-4051-9446-4}}.</ref> His 1993 biography of Larkin, which won the [[1994 Whitbread Awards|Whitbread Prize for Biography]], was responsible for bringing about a substantial revision of Larkin's reputation.

Motion was editorial director and poetry editor at [[Chatto & Windus]] (1983–89); he edited the [[Poetry Society]]'s ''[[Poetry Review]]'' from 1980 to 1982 and succeeded [[Malcolm Bradbury]] as professor of creative writing at the [[University of East Anglia]].<ref Name= "AM"/> Motion is now on the faculty at the [[Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars]].

===Laureateship===
Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of [[Ted Hughes]], the previous incumbent. The [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]–winning Northern Irish poet and translator [[Seamus Heaney]] had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary [[Butt (volume)|butt]] of [[Sack (wine)|sack]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Carol Ann Duffy was officially declared as Britain's first female Poet Laureate on May&nbsp;1st 2009. |url=http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |url-status=dead |publisher=The Poetry Society |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510115038/http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |archive-date=10 May 2009}}</ref> He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life", rather than be seen as a "courtier". So, he wrote "for the [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] about liberty, about homelessness for [[the Salvation Army]], about bullying for [[ChildLine]], about the [[2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak|foot and mouth outbreak]] for the [[Today (BBC Radio 4)|''Today'' programme]], about the [[Ladbroke Grove rail crash|Paddington rail disaster]], the [[11 September attacks]] and [[Harry Patch]] for the BBC, and more recently about [[Combat stress reaction|shell shock]] for the charity [[Combat Stress]], and climate change for the song cycle he finished for Cambridge University with [[Peter Maxwell Davies]]."<ref name="Lau rels" />

On 14 March 2002, as part of the "Re-weaving Rainbows" event of [[National Science Week]] 2002, Motion unveiled a blue plaque on the front wall of 28 [[St Thomas Street, Southwark|St Thomas Street]], [[Southwark]], to commemorate the sharing of lodgings there by [[John Keats]] and [[Henry Stephens (doctor)|Henry Stephens]] while they were medical students at [[Guy's Hospital|Guy's]] and [[St Thomas' Hospital]] in 1815–16.

In 2003, Motion wrote ''Regime change'', a poem in protest at the [[Invasion of Iraq]] from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2912557.stm |title=Poet laureate writes Iraq lament |publisher=BBC News |date=3 April 2003 |access-date=12 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |title=Regime Change |access-date=12 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015005834/http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |archive-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> and in 2005, "Spring Wedding" in honour of the wedding of the [[Prince of Wales]] to [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall|Camilla Parker Bowles]]. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109-year-old [[Harry Patch]], the last surviving "[[Tommy Atkins|Tommy]]" to have fought in the [[First World War]], Motion composed a five-part poem, read and received by Patch at the [[Bishop's Palace, Wells|Bishop's Palace]] in [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]] in 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=Poem honours WWI veteran aged 109|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=7 March 2008 |access-date=7 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311005302/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |archive-date=11 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

As laureate, he also founded the [[Poetry Archive]], an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|title=The Poetry Archive|access-date=12 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519101308/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|archive-date=19 May 2014}}</ref>

Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work".<ref>{{cite news|title= Laureate bemoans 'thankless' job|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm|work=BBC News Online|date=10 September 2008|access-date=10 September 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080910173623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm| archive-date= 10 September 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters.<ref>{{cite news|title=Andrew Motion to be Poet Laureate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/19/fiachragibbons.michaelwhite|work=The Guardian |date=19 May 1999|access-date=10 September 2008 | location=London | first=Michael | last=White}}</ref> As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' that concluded: "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry."<ref name="Lau rels">Motion, Andrew (21 March 2009). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/21/andrew-motion-poet-laureate "Yet once more, O ye laurels"]. ''The Guardian'', Access date 2009-03-21.</ref><ref>Harper and Sullivan (2009), ''The Creative Environments: Authors at Work''. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.</ref>

Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, [[Radley College]], before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. [[Carol Ann Duffy]] succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.

===Post-laureateship===
Motion is chairman of the Arts Council of England's literature panel (appointed 1996) and is also a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref Name= "AM"/> In 2003, he became professor of creative writing at [[Royal Holloway]], [[University of London]].<ref>[http://www.rhul.ac.uk/english/studying/Postgraduate-Study/MA/CreativeWriting.htm Royal Holloway University site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609174350/http://www.rhul.ac.uk/english/studying/Postgraduate-Study/MA/CreativeWriting.htm |date=9 June 2010 }}. Accessed 2010-08-17</ref> Since July 2009, Motion has been Chairman of the [[Museums, Libraries and Archives Council]] (MLA) appointed by the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]].<ref Name= "AM"/><ref>[http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5237.aspx "Andrew Motion appointed new Chair of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council"], Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 3 July 2008. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214233100/http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5237.aspx|date=14 February 2009}}</ref> He is also a vice-president of the [[Friends of the British Library]], a charity which provides funding support to the [[British Library]].<ref name="ar0607">{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/supportus/pdf/friendsannrep0607.pdf|title=Friends of the British Library Annual Report 2006/07| access-date=7 September 2009}}</ref> He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours list.<ref Name= "AM"/> He has been a member of [[English Heritage]]'s Blue Plaques Panel since 2008.

Motion was selected as jury chair for the [[Man Booker Prize]] 2010<ref>[http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/judges "Man Booker 2010 judges"], The Man Booker Prizes, 9 December 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103002735/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/judges|date=3 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8097237.stm|title=BBC News|date=12 June 2009|access-date=12 October 2014}}</ref> and in March 2010, he announced that he was working with publishers [[Jonathan Cape]] on a sequel to [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Treasure Island]]''. Entitled ''Silver'', the story is set a generation on from the original book and was published in March 2012.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8588371.stm|title=Sir Andrew Motion to write Treasure Island sequel |date=26 March 2010|work=BBC News|access-date=26 March 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100329135349/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8588371.stm| archive-date= 29 March 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> In July 2010, Motion returned to [[Kingston-upon-Hull]] for the annual ''Humber Mouth'' literature festival and taking part in the [[Larkin 25]] festival commemorating the 25th anniversary of [[Philip Larkin]]'s death. In his capacity as Larkin's biographer and as a former lecturer in English at the [[University of Hull]], Motion named an [[East Yorkshire Motor Services]] bus ''Philip Larkin''.<ref>''Yorkshire Evening Post'' 6 July 2010 [http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/Buses-are-fare-way-to.6403079.jp "Buses are fare way to celebrate city poet"] (Retrieved 7 July 2010)</ref><ref>[http://www.larkin25.co.uk/news.php Larkin 25. 7 July 2010. ''Welcome aboard the Philip Larkin bus!'' ](Retrieved 12 July 2010)</ref> Motion's debut play ''[[Incoming (play)|Incoming]]'', about the war in Afghanistan, premièred at the High Tides Festival in [[Halesworth]], Suffolk, in May 2011.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/8335508/Andrew-Motion-to-debut-as-playwright-with-work-about-Afghanistan.html |title=Andrew Motion to debut as playwright with work about Afghanistan - Telegraph |first=Roya |last=Nikkhah |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=20 February 2010 |location=[[London, UK|London]] |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006}}</ref> Motion also featured in ''[[Jamie's Dream School]]'' in 2011 as the poetry teacher.

In June 2012, he became the President of the [[Campaign to Protect Rural England]]. In March 2014, he was elected an Honorary Fellow at [[Homerton College, Cambridge]].

Motion won the 2015 [[Ted Hughes Award]] for new work in poetry for the radio programme ''Coming Home''. The production featured poetry by Motion based on recordings he made of British soldiers returning from the wars in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Mark|last=Brown|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/02/andrew-motion-wins-ted-hughes-award-poetry-returning-soldiers |title=Andrew Motion wins Ted Hughes award for poetry work about returning soldiers|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 April 2015}}</ref>

In 2017, Motion moved to [[Baltimore, Maryland]], to take up a post at the [[Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars|Writing Seminars]] as a Homewood Professor of the Arts at [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://hub.jhu.edu/at-work/2016/01/11/andrew-motion|title= British poet Andrew Motion settles into life in America as a professor at Johns Hopkins|publisher=Johns Hopkins University|first=Bret |last=McCabe|date=11 January 2015|access-date=8 July 2017}}</ref>