| Tom Paulin |
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| 1949 births | |
| paulin, tom | |
| academics of the university of nottingham | |
| alumni of lincoln college, oxford | |
| british poets | |
| living people | |
| people from leeds | |
| northern irish poets | |
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Thomas Neilson Paulin (born January 25 , 1949 in Leeds , England ) is a Northern Irish Poet and Critic well-known for his strong political views. He lives in Great Britain , where he is the GM Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford . LIFE AND WORK While he was still young, Paulin's Northern Irish Protestant mother and English father moved from Leeds to Belfast and Paulin grew up at the Middle Class end of Belfast's Ormeau Road, an area of Sectarian tension. According to Paulin, his parents, a doctor and headmaster, held "vaguely socialist liberal views". Paulin was educated at ). Recently he has championed the work of literary and Social Critic William Hazlitt and has taken part in a successful campaign to have Hazlitt's Gravestone refurbished. Paulin is most widely-known in Britain for his appearances on the late-night BBC arts programmes ''Late Review'' and ''Newsnight Review'', where he has established a reputation not only for his acerbic judgements but also for the unusual quality of some of his language (for instance, he once described the sound of Blur 's '' 13 '' album as "like Barbed Wire at the bottom of a pond"). He is also not averse to becoming involved in bad-tempered arguments with other regular guests such as Germaine Greer . In 1980, together with Brian Friel , Stephen Rea , Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane , Paulin co-founded the Field Day Theatre Company . CONTROVERSY Paulin was the subject of controversy in 2001 and 2002 following the publication of his poem ''Killed in Crossfire'' in the British newspaper The Observer {Link without Title} , and subsequent accusations that its content was anti-Semetic. These accusations increased following an interview he gave to the liberal Zionists. I have utter contempt for them. They use this card of anti-Semitism. They fill newspapers with hate letters. They are useless people." {Link without Title} Paulin considers his statements to be anti- Zionist , but not anti-Semetic. Indeed, he said he was "a lifelong opponent of anti-Semitism", and also that he did "not support attacks on Israeli citizens under any circumstances". {Link without Title} The interview resulted in the cancellation and subsequent reinstatement of Paulin's invitation to deliver the prestigious Morris Gray Lecture at Harvard University . {Link without Title} BIBLIOGRAPHY
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