Julian Turner (born 1955) is a British poet and mental health worker.[1] Turner was born in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, then moved to Cheshire in 1955. He now lives in Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, with his partner and their daughter.
He was educated at New College, Oxford (matriculated 1974) and Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Turner was the Chief Executive of Leeds Mind until autumn 2010.
His poems have been published in periodicals including Poetry London, The Reater, and The Realto, and in The Ring of Words: Poems from the Daily Telegraph Arvon International Poetry Competition 1998 (introduction by Andrew Motion, Stroud: Sutton, 1998)
In 1993, he won First Prize in the Nortwords poetry competition for his poem Whale Bone.
In 2002, his collection Crossing the Outskirts was published by Anvil Press Poetry. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation (2002) and was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) (2002).[2] A number of poems in the collection deal with mental health issues. For example, 'Tennis Ball' is about suicide and 'The Director's Cut' is about self-harm. The poems in this collection observe traditional conventions of rhyme and metre.
In 2004, he won a Bridport Supplementary Prize for his poem 'The Gas Poker'.[3]
His second collection, Orphan Sites, was published by Anvil Press Poetry in 2006.
He was anthologised in Bloodaxe's Identity Parade (New British and Irish Poets), edited by Roddy Lumsden, in 2010
His third collection, Planet-Struck was published by Anvil in January 2011 and was also a Poetry Book Society recommendation.