Richard Price

Head and shoulders photo of Dr Richard Price
Position
Head of Contemporary British Collections
Department
Collections

Areas of responsibility 

The Head of Contemporary British Collections is responsible for the curation of our Collections of material of a relatively recent British origin (post-1999 for published works, post-1949 for manuscripts & archives) including digital and printed publications, news, manuscripts, archives and sound recordings. His team shapes the Library’s policy on legal deposit and leads the Save Our Sounds Programme. It is made up of three curatorial areas covering Contemporary British Published Collections, Contemporary Manuscripts & Archives and Sound & Vision. 

Areas of expertise

For the Library, 'Contemporary' means from 1950 onwards for manuscripts and from 2000 onwards for publications, including the UK Web Archive. All the Library’s sound recordings, going back to the 19th century, are part of Contemporary British Collections.

I have a background in curatorship, team management and strategy. I have expertise in contemporary poetry, little magazines, and artist’s books. I am a poet, lyricist and novelist and this helps inform my work, too.

Publications

Books

  • Is This a Poem? Essays on Modern Lyric (Molecular Press, 2016)
  • Moon for Sale [poetry] (Manchester: Carcanet, 2016)
  • Small World [poetry] (Manchester: Carcanet, 2012)
  • The Island [novel] (Ullapool: Two Ravens, 2010)
  • British Poetry Magazines 1914-2000: A history and bibliography of ‘little magazines’ , with David Miller (London: British Library, 2006)

Chapters and articles

  • 'CAT-scanning the Little Magazine', in The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, ed. by Peter Robinson (Oxford: OUP, 2013), pp. 173-190

Recordings

  • Mirabeau, Golden Key (Generous, 2011) [lyricist and vocalist]
  • Mirabeau, Age of Exploration (Generous, 2015) [lyricist and vocalist]

Exhibitions

  • Migrant and the Poetry of Possibility, The British Library, Folio Gallery, 2007
  • Ted Hughes: The Page is Printed, The British Library, Folio Gallery, 2003-2004