John McCullough lives in Hove. His first collection of poems, The Frost Fairs, was published by Salt in 2011 and won the Polari First Book Prize. It was a Book of the Year in The Independent as well as a summer read in The Observer.
Spacecraft, his second collection, was published by Penned in the Margins in 2016 and shortlisted for the Ledbury-Forte Prize as well as being a summer read in The Guardian. His third book of poems, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins, 2019), won the 2020 Hawthornden Prize for Literature as well as being shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award.
His fourth collection, Panic Response (Penned in the Margins, 2022), was a Book of the Year for The Telegraph and one of The Times’ Notable New Poetry Books of 2022. The collection’s long poem, ‘Flower of Sulphur’, was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. His fifth, Crowd Voltage, is published by Bloodaxe Books in 2026.
John is a Senior Lecturer in creative writing at the University of Brighton as well as teaching on poetry for organisations including the Arvon Foundation and the online Creative Writing Programme.
