Bunting Centenary Celebrations 2000

(This page presents a record of the events which took place to celebrate Bunting's centenary in the year 2000)

Bunting's centenary was celebrated with a new edition of his Complete Poems, accompanied by a two-volume tape selection of Bunting reading his own work (see Bunting Bibliography). The Bunting Centre also planned a number of events to mark the occasion, and this programme is outlined here. 

The Centenary Programme

The Centenary Lecture

The Basil Bunting Poetry Centre and St Aidan's College presented

Silent, Accurate Lips: Meaning and Precision in Bunting's Work

This public lecture was given by Professor Peter Makin (Kansai Univerity, Japan) in the Lindisfarne Centre at St Aidan's College, Durham University, at 6.30 p.m., Wednesday 1st March, 2000. The lecture was published by the Basil Bunting Poetry Centre and can be ordered from Durham University Library.

Professor Makin is one of only a very few critics to win the respect of Basil Bunting, and it was particularly appropriate to welcome him to Durham to give this Centenary Lecture. Widely respected as a Pound scholar, his previous work on Bunting includes Bunting: the Shaping of His Verse (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1992) and an edition of Bunting's lectures on poetry, Basil Bunting on Poetry (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press 2000).

Basil Bunting: Northern Poet - A Centenary Exhibition

Manuscript and printed material including letters, drafts and poems from the Bunting Archive and elsewhere were be exhibited at Durham University Library, Palace Green Section, from 1 June to 31 July 2000.