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Alex Niven

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Alex Niven
Born (1984-02-18) 18 February 1984 (age 40)
Hexham
Known forEverything Everything
Academic background
EducationQueen Elizabeth High School, Hexham
Alma materUniversity of Bristol (BA)
University of Oxford (MSt, DPhil)
ThesisBasil Bunting's late modernism : from Pound to poetic community (2013)
Doctoral advisorRon Bush[1]
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish literature
Sub-disciplineModernist poetry
InstitutionsNewcastle University
Websitewww.ncl.ac.uk/elll/people/profile/alexniven.html Edit this at Wikidata

Alex Niven (born 18 February 1984, Hexham, Northumberland) is an English writer, poet, editor, academic and musician.[2] As of 2024 he is a lecturer in English literature at Newcastle University[3] and an editor at Repeater Books.[4][5][6]

Early life and education

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Alex Niven was born in Hexham, Northumberland and educated at Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham.[7] He studied at the University of Bristol (BA)[3] and University of Oxford where he was awarded a Master of Studies (MSt) degree followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2013 with a thesis on modernist poetry, Basil Bunting and Ezra Pound supervised by Ron Bush.[1]

Career

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In 2006, Niven was a founding member of the indie art rock band Everything Everything, with friends from Queen Elizabeth High School and played guitar with the band between 2007 and 2009.[8] In 2009, he left the band to study for a doctorate[9] at St John's College, Oxford and to pursue a writing career.[citation needed]

Formerly[when?] assistant editor at New Left Review[10] and editor-in-chief at The Oxonian Review, Niven wrote for The Guardian, The Independent, openDemocracy, Agenda, The Cambridge Quarterly, ELH, Oxford Poetry, Notes and Queries, The Quietus, several blogs, including his own The Fantastic Hope.[11]

Publications

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In 2011, Niven's first work of criticism, Folk Opposition, was published by Zero Books.[12] The book attempted to reclaim a variety of folk culture motifs for the political left, and excoriated the "Green Tory" zeitgeist that had accompanied the ascendancy of David Cameron's Conservative Party in Britain in 2009-10. Writing in the journal of the Institute for Public Policy Research, Niki Seth-Smith described it as a "rebuttal to ... knee jerk reactions [about folk culture] by way of careful historicisation and incisive cultural analysis",[13] while Joe Kennedy of The Quietus described it as "one of 2011's most incisive polemics".[14]

In 2014, his second book, a study of the Oasis album Definitely Maybe, was published in Bloomsbury Publishing's 33⅓ series.[15] TLS, The Times Literary Supplement praised its "convincing modulation between a discussion of the post-Thatcher north-west England that informed Oasis's early lyrics, and the finer points of pentatonic and mixolydian melody governing Noel Gallagher's early songwriting".[16] Los Angeles Review of Books reviewer Rhian E. Jones judged the book a success, concluding that "Niven displays a thorough appreciation of what made Oasis good while remaining aware of their shortcomings".[17]

In 2014, his first collection of poetry, The Last Tape, was published, and his poem "The Beehive" provided the epigraph to Owen Hatherley's 2012 architecture survey A New Kind of Bleak.[18]

In 2019, his third book was published: New Model Island: How to Build a Radical Culture beyond the idea of England.[19]

In 2023, his book on Northern England was published and reviewed by Andy Burnham as a "great book".[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Niven, Alex (2013). Basil Bunting's late modernism : from Pound to poetic community (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 903091313. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  2. ^ Farrell, William. "Folk Opposition (interview and profile/caricature of Alex Niven)". Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ a b "Staff Profile – English Literature, Language and Linguistics". Newcastle University. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  4. ^ "Team". Repeater Books. 25 November 2014. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  5. ^ Niven, Alex (2020). "Covid-19 is helping the Tories redraw the political map of England". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  6. ^ Interview in Review 31 Archived 29 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine. not dated.
  7. ^ a b Niven, Alex (2023). The North Will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-399-41401-2. OCLC 1420813068.
  8. ^ "Everything Everything's sounding great for Tynedale band". The Journal (Newcastle). 19 May 2009. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  9. ^ Cutterham, Tom. "Politics beyond Dalston: An Interview with Alex Niven". Review 31. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  10. ^ "About". New Left Review. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  11. ^ Niven, Alex (2007). "The Fantastic Hope: Blog from 2007–2017". thefantastichope.blogspot.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024.
  12. ^ Sukhdev Sandhu's interview-profile of Zero Books authors in The Guardian Archived 1 October 2024 at the Wayback Machine. 17 February 2012
  13. ^ Seth-Smith, Niki (16 May 2012). "Review of Alex Niven's Folk Opposition". PPR (Public Policy Research). 19 (1): 78.
  14. ^ Kennedy, Joe. "Big Society, Little Hope: False Folk Culture in 2011". The Quietus. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  15. ^ "Aphex Twin, Oasis, Bjork, J Dilla headline new series of 33 1/3 books". FACT Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  16. ^ Charlton, Joe (18 July 2014). "Oasis' Definitely Maybe". Times Literary Supplement: 27.
  17. ^ Jones, Rhian E. "Living Fast: Revisiting Oasis' Definitely Maybe". lareviewofbooks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  18. ^ Hatherley, Owen (2012). A New Kind of Bleak. London: Verso. pp. (epigraph page). ISBN 978-1-84467-857-0.
  19. ^ Michael J. Brooks (19 December 2019). "Not Looking for a New England: Alex Niven's New Model Island". The Quietus. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
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