Dunn, Douglas (Eaglesham)

Dunn, Douglas (Eaglesham) (1942– ), Scottish poet and critic, born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, professor of English at St Andrews University since 1991. After graduating at the University of Hull he worked in the Brynmor Jones Library under Larkin, whose influence was apparent in Dunn's first collection, Terry Street (1969), closely observed and blackly humorous vignettes of a working-class Hull suburb. This was followed by Backwaters and Night (both 1971), The Happier Life (1972), Love or Nothing (1974), Barbarians (1979), and St Kilda's Parliament (1981). In 1985 he published the moving Elegies, written after the death of his wife from cancer, and a collection of short stories about rural Scotland, Secret Villages. Further collections include Selected Poems: 1964–1983 (1986), Northlight (1988), Dante's Drum-kit (1993), The Donkey's Ears (2000), a long narrative poem, and New and Selected Poems 1964–1999 (2002). He has also published collections of short stories, and edited The Oxford Book of Scottish Short Stories in 1995. His Essays appeared in 2003.