Biography
Born in Edinburgh, Torrance grew up in London and moved to rural Wales in 1970. He taught creative writing at Cardiff University for a number of years. He performs literary cabaret with the poetry and music group Poetheat, which he co-founded in 1985 with composer Chris Vine and which is now called Heat Poets.
His work shows the influence of the Beats, especially Gary Snyder and William Burroughs and an interest in the matter and monuments of ancient Britain, including such 'magical' or religious phenomena as ley lines. He has also expressed an admiration for the writings of Charles Olson and David Jones.
Torrance has featured in a number of key Revival anthologies, including Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain (1969), Conductors of Chaos (1996) and Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970 (1999). His major work is the ongoing Magic Door sequence, of which seven books have been published to date.
Read more about this topic: Chris Torrance
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