We are extremely pleased to celebrate Sir Andrew Motion as an Honorary Esteemed Fellow of The Honors College at Oakland University.

Sir Andrew is Chairman of the Arts Council of England's Literature Panel and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Since 2003, he has been Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is Chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and in 2010 he was selected as jury chair for the Man Booker Prize 2010.

His works include, among many others, such poetry collections as The Pleasure Steamers, Salt Water and The Cinder Path; the novels The Invention of Dr Cake and Wainwright the Poisoner; and his biographical works Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life, Keats: A Biography and the autobiography In the Blood: A Memory of My Childhood; as well as such critical works as Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets. His prizes include The Whitbread Prize for Biography and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Andrew’s contributions as a writer, as a supporter of the arts, as a teacher and as advocate for the creative and the inspiring, go beyond his own wonderful writing and out into avenues of the community, education and public service.

His work during his period as Poet Laureate included innumerable visits to schools, festivals, universities and colleges. But this wider work did not begin or stop with his formal role as Poet Laureate and he continues today to support the arts as a positive force in society, to contribute to the preservation of literary works, and to advocate for the creative in education and in the community.

We celebrate here the work and life of Sir Andrew Motion and his many contributions to the literary world and to education.

You can read more about Andrew at: http://literature.britishcouncil.org/andrew-motion

And you can hear him reading here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYATBRM0gbs