David Tait

David Tait is a poet and teacher who lives in Guangzhou, China. His books and pamphlets, all published by Smith|Doorstop Books, include By Degrees (2021); The AQI (2018), shortlisted for the 2019 Ledbury Forte Poetry Prize for Second Collections;Three Dragon Day (2015), winner of the 2014/2015 Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition and shortlisted for the 2015 Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets; Self-Portrait with the Happiness (2014), shortlisted for the 2014 Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and winner of the 2014 Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors; and Love’s Loose Ends (2010), winner of the 2010/2011 Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition. Tait’s poems have been published in magazines and anthologies including Ambit, Magma, Poetry Review, The Rialto, and The Guardian. 

Tait earned an MA in creative writing at The Manchester Metropolitan University and a BA in English language and literature from the University of Leeds, where he studied under poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. Between 2010 and 2013, Tait was named “House Poet” at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre by then-UK Poetry Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as part of the Carol Ann Duffy & Friends Poetry Series. In 2017, Tait was poet-in-residence for The Wordsworth Trust.