Born in Glasgow in on 27th April 1920, he was brought up in a comfortable middle class family with his father working as a clerk to a firm of ship breakers. From an early age Morgan was fascinated by, and passionate about words; he remembered his teachers complaining about the amount of work he would give them to mark. His early education was at Rutherglen Academy, then Glasgow High School. He was a resident of Glasgow for the duration of his life, apart from his six year service in the Middle East with the Royal Army Medical Corps. On his return he completed his Master's degree at Glasgow University before teaching there, becoming Professor of English in 1975. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1980. He subsequently worked as a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University (1987-1990) and also at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (1991-1995). The poet Robert Crawford, a former pupil of Morgan's, remembers him as 'an extremely lively teacher ... incredibly focused on what his students were doing.'

Morgan was an adept linguist, particularly in Russian, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Hungarian. This is demonstrated in his translations of Mayakovsky, Racine and Neruda, which he characteristically translated into robust Scots, and which appear in his Collected Translations.

His prolific career was also a prize-winning one. Morgan was awarded an OBE in 1982 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2000, and his collections have several times been selected as Poetry Book Society Choices and Recommendations. He was awarded the Royal Bank of Scotland Book of the Year Award in 1983, the Soros Translation Award (New York) in 1985 and won numerous Scottish Arts Council Book Awards. His poetry collection, Virtual and Other Realities, won the Stakis Prize for the Scottish Writer of the Year 1998. His final Carcanet collection, A Book of Lives (2007), won the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year award and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.

Morgan's poetry is praised for its inventiveness and its moral and social observations. He wrote concrete and visual poetry, opera libretti and collaborated with jazz saxophonist Tommy Smith to put his work into music. His work is also renowned for its outwardly-looking internationalism, moving his poetic gaze from Europe to the wider world and into space, but always returning to his native Glasgow.

Edwin Morgan died in Glasgow on 19th August 2010, several months after celebrating his 90th birthday.

Edwin Morgan has a page on the Poetry Archive website, where you can listen to recordings of his poetry and access other useful resources.

'Edwin Morgan's experimental and science fiction poems often imply joyful adventure, boundless optimism.'

Carol Rumens, The Guardian where 'A Little Catechism' was Poem of the Week

'For readers new to Morgan, it forms a perfect introduction, showcasing his fearless experimentation... For those who already know Morgan's work, this selection is a welcome romp of rediscovery. It offers a reminder that he masters every form - from sonnets to strict rhyme schemes with free rhythm to the disintegrating word curtains of some of his early concrete poems - and gilds them all with the humour and humanity that infuse his own effervescent voice.... He never shrinks from the darkness but the shimmering beauty of his words somehow makes it more bearable.'

Fiona Rintoul, The Herald

'Thank God, thank whatever all-seeing quick-witted deity you like, we have Edwin Morgan to show us how to live, and keep living..."pleasure" is nowhere strong enough to convey the joyous energy of his work.'

Kathleen Jamie 

'No 20th-century poetry has brought me more varied, intense and unfading pleasure than Morgan's. His is the song of our time - the living, not the dying, song which "gives us our being"'

Carol Rumens

'Edwin Morgan is the most dynamic, brilliant, free-wheeling poet around, endlessly accessible and inventive, glorious refreshment.'
The Scotsman 'There seems no subject Morgan cannot alight upon with his effervescent art.'
The Scotsman 'Morgan is just as capable of taking the breath away in cool, stanzaic English, as in roustabout Scots free verse.'
VERSE 'For the range of his inventiveness, the generosity of his imagination, the moral alertness of his social observation. Edwin Morgan is the man for me.'
Carol Ann Duffy 'Edwin Morgan's poetry encompasses the whole world. ... he should be at least as famous as Hughes and Heaney.'
Liz Lochhead 'Edwin Morgan is probably the writer most influential (in this) generation of Scottish poets.'
Robert Crawford '(Morgan) is still at the height of his powers as storyteller, polemicist, lyric poet and translator.'
Alan Brownjohn 'Mr Morgan writes in a way which I would characterise as generous and forceful as well as immediately sensible.'
The Scotsman 'Mr Morgan is as versatile as he is inventive ... the qualities that most appeal are a capacity for celebration ... and an unsentimental humaneness, a considering sympathy.'
TLS

Awards won by Edwin Morgan (1920 - 2010) Winner, 2000 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Edwin Morgan reads 'The Loch Ness Monster's Song' (1 min) Edwin Morgan reads 'The Death of Marilyn Monroe' (1:48mins) Edwin Morgan reads 'One Cigarette' (0.49mins)