Edward Ragg is a British poet, literary critic and Master of Wine (MW) living in Beijing, China. Born in 1976 in Stockton-on-Tees, England, one of his earliest publications appeared in the 2001 May Anthology for Poetry (ed. Michael Donaghy).
Edward has since published widely in international magazines and anthologies including Aesthetica, Acumen, Agenda, BODY, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Critical Quarterly, Enclave 飞地, Envoi, Orbis, Other Poetry, Papercuts, Poetry Quarterly, PN Review, Seam, Spittoon: A Literary Magazine and The New Writer.
In 2012 Edward was a winner of the Cinnamon Press Poetry Award, which led to his first collection A Force That Takes (Cinnamon Press, 2013). One poem from that volume, 'Anthem at Morning', was subsequently chosen for the 2014 Forward Book of Poetry (Faber & Faber, 2013). His second collection, which charted the resurgence of modern China, was Holding Unfailing (Cinnamon Press, 2017). This was followed by the more experimental and multiply voiced Exploring Rights (Cinnamon Press, 2020) which confronted 'post-truth' culture and the prospects of humankind's survival.
Edward's fourth collection And Then the Rain Came (Cinnamon Press, 2022) explored love, well-being and physical and mental geographies - set in the contexts of the COVID pandemic and climate crisis - with each poem embracing present perception through the awakening and recurring motif of rain. Whilst his fifth volume, Vital Signs (Cinnamon Press, 2024), addressed love, death, grief and vitality in three sections, each of nine poems, mirroring the medical vital signs: 'Body', 'Pulse' and 'Breath'.
Edward's criticism has focused mainly on 20th and 21st Century poetry as well as topics as various as American pragmatist philosophy and Shakespeare editing. His major critical study Wallace Stevens and the Aesthetics of Abstraction (Cambridge University Press, 2010) was a Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title (2011) and remains a classic in the field.
A former Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University (2004-05), Edward previously taught at Cambridge University (2000-2006) and Tsinghua University (2007-2017). In 2010 he was the first foreigner to be appointed an Associate Professor in Tsinghua's Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures (est. 1926). In 2017 he left Tsinghua to pursue his writing and career in wine, including study for the Master of Wine (MW) qualification. He became a Master of Wine in 2019 and went on to run the Institute of Masters of Wine Australasian programme.
In 2007 Edward co-founded Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting with his wife, the wine expert, Fongyee Walker MW. He subsequently created the first class in wine at Tsinghua (in 2011); and has also written on the intersections between literature and wine as well as a number of poems relating to wine. Edward continues to write for some of the world's leading wine journals, including The World of Fine Wine, as well as several trade and consumer publications in China. He is also the reviewer of Chinese wine for the Robert Parker Wine Advocate.
He is currently working on a sixth collection of poetry.
For a complete list of Edward's publications, please download the PDF:
