Dr Julian Stannard publishes poetry collection and satirical novel

Exeter alumnus Dr Julian Stannard (1985, PGCE English) has recently published two new books.  

The University of Bliss is a piece of satire work, set in a dystopian future where universities follow a corporate ideology and have lost the reputation they once held. The three main characters, Tristan Black, Harry Blink and Humph Lacan, choose to fight back against what universities have become, but are they too late? Roma Tearne, author of TRACe: The Museum of Memory, writes “The University of Bliss is stunningly funny. Its witty, acerbic humour places it in a class well beyond the campus novels of the twentieth century…The brilliant and energetic surface of the novel floats buoyantly on the progressive depletion of academic integrity. The darkness is there but it never extinguishes the human vitality and the comic exuberance of this novel.”  

New and Selected Poems is a collection of poems from a quarter of a century of writing, infusing Dr Stannard’s love for Italy with his views on Britain. New and Selected Poems won the Lerici Anglo-Liguria Prize in 2024, bringing Dr Stannard into the same company as previous winners, current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and his predecessor Carol Ann Duffy, who won the Lerici Lifetime Achievement Award. Massimo Bacigalupo, Professor Emeritus, University of Genoa writes “Julian Stannard sketches the paradoxes of life at home and abroad. His poems have the rare quality of taking us by surprise while simultaneously delighting us. Once discovered, we can’t wait to share them with friends.” 

The University of Bliss is available to purchase now and you can pre-order your copy of New and Selected Poems from Waterstones and other booksellers.