Miguel Cullen (b. 1982) is a British-Argentine poet and journalist. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Cullen grew up travelling frequently from Buenos Aires, the vast expanse of the Pampas, to south-west London and back again. Never in one place for too long, he spent much of his childhood reading everything from Lorca to Jamaican crime novels; spending long car journeys listening to story-tapes of Greek mythology with his family. As a young man he enjoyed comparable escapism, drawn to early 2000s rave culture and free soundsystem parties; feeling embraced by laser-filled spectrums of drum and bass and lyrical MCs. A girlfriend gave him a rhymebook which he filled with notes, often taking it with him to house parties to perform on the mic.
Much of his work is bilingual, an important nod to his Argentine blood, often bringing words over to use in Spanglish, Franglish or Ítalo-English; to inspire the poem, or provoke the reader into a potential unidentified xenophobia – a tension experienced by Cullen on both sides of his dual nationality and which he entertains within his work.
More recently, his poetry explores occluded, unsafe, sometimes sexual nuances, examining the dualities of vulgarity and vulnerability. These mix with themes of Western religion and traditional Hispanic codes. He draws on themes of intimacy, sexuality, Latinx/Black cultures and then contrasts these images against a backdrop of the Western visual arts, particularly the Old Masters.
His first collection, Wave Caps (2014), was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year. VICE described it as “full of the lawless energy of late nights and early mornings, hop-scotching London’s jungle raves”.
His second collection Paranoid Narcissism! (2017) was an Evening Standard Book of the Year, and A N Wilson said of it “Each of these subtly crafted poems contains a surprise; each is a distinct work of art, with the power to shake, move, change us”. Ian Thomson said “Adrift in the contemporary scene, Miguel Cullen notes down all he sees and hears. True stars in poetry like Cullen are not afraid to learn from the brazen avant-garderies of Ezra Pound and company. Brocaded with reflections on homeland and exile, Paranoid Narcissism! is a magnificent, thrillingly metropolitan outpouring of the personal set against a backdrop of the city”.
Poem(s) publication history:
Ranger (USA): ‘O, Juvie Days!’, ‘Louis Vuitton’, ‘Rastafarian Teachings’, ‘Flies’
Flaunt (USA): ‘David’
Mardulce (Argentina): ‘Karaboudjan’
PURPLE (France): ‘Maradona & the Pope’
Abridged (Ireland): ‘St Francis of Assisi’
NOWNESS: ‘Maradona’
Dreich: ‘Rival Dealer Dream’, ‘Bedsit Dream’
Shooter: ‘Deep Mourning Dream’
Stand: ‘Maradona’, ‘Maradona 3’
Magma Poetry: ‘Cross-Country Running’
Lunar Poetry: ‘Haemotoma’, ‘A Death’
WritersMosaic: ‘Perpetual Labyrinth’, ‘Drown’
The East End Review: ‘Graduation’
Caught by the River: ‘Wave Caps’, ‘Autumn Alegria’ ‘Lincoln’s Inn Fields, July 29, 2014’
Erotic Review: 'Simon & Garfunkel’, ‘Double Loupe’, ‘Risperidone’, ‘A Town Called Malice’, ‘Space Oddity’
Literateur: ‘Sky Lock’
New River Press Yearbook: ‘Dia Tribe’
New River Press Yearbook: ‘Written While Listening To Bach's Chaconne’, ‘Leave Me Alone’ Latino Life: ‘Miguel Cullen +1’, ‘Mary Cullen +1’
Prizes:
Shortlisted for Poet of the Year Award of Canterbury Poetry Prize: ‘The Azahár and the Orange’
Longlisted for Poet of the Year Award of Canterbury Poetry Prize: ‘Maradona 3’ Commended in Segora Poetry Prize: ‘Haemotoma’
Books of the Year:
Book of the Year in Times Literary Supplement: Wave Caps
Book of the Year in the London Standard: Paranoid Narcissism!
Broadcast:
Poetry read on BBC London for National Poetry Day: ‘Complicated Love’
Publicity quotes for books from:
Hologram: August Kleinzahler
Paranoid Narcissism!: A.N. Wilson
In Dreams of Diminished Responsibility: Camilla Grudova