[1] In 1975, with his friend, Rob Earl, he started a series of poetry readings called Outcrowd at the Lamb pub, later renamed Drakes' Crab and Oyster House, by the River Medway in Maidstone.

[3] In 1979, his interest in Berlin Cabaret, combined with the current punk culture, led him to joining up with Childish, Charles Thomson, Sexton Ming, Rob Earl and Miriam Carney to found the anarchic poetry performance group, The Medway Poets,[2] which he named.

"[2] In 1980, he had a show of paintings at Peter Waite's Rochester Pottery Gallery, as did Thomson, Childish, Sanchia Lewis (no relation) and Sexton Ming, the last two also founder members of the Stuckist group.

[citation needed] In 1989 the Nicaraguan poet and storyteller Carlos Rigby invited Lewis to Nicaragua, suggesting he would find the revolution receptive to his poetry.

[1] In 2004, he was one of the fourteen "founder and featured" artists in The Stuckists Punk Victorian held at the Walker Art Gallery for the Liverpool Biennial.

[citation needed] Throughout the 1990s he carried out many poetry reading tours, six on the East Coast of the United States, he also performed (in English) in Paris, France.

Many of Lewis' American readings were organized by Professor Robert Parker Sorlien of the University of Rhode Island.

The last of these readings was at a festival in Willimantic, Connecticut, where Lewis appeared on stage with Claribel Alegría, Naomi Ayala and Luis J.

At the same time he was teaching courses in Myth and Culture and also Creative Writing for Adult Education in Maidstone and on the Isle of Sheppey.

In the same year Lewis gave a series of lectures on Myth, Culture and the New Paradigm at the University of Creative Arts in Medway Pop-up Gallery.

This was in recognition, not only of his writing, but also his work in the community mentoring younger artists and promoting art and culture in the Medway area.

[11] In 2020 Bill had some of his poems translated into Italian by Silvia Pio and they were published in the online magazine 'Margutte' Read it here: [1] His position in art in many ways stands for the Stuckist ethic.

[1] He names as influences Marc Chagall, Paula Rego, Ana Maria Pacheco, films and comic books.

[12] A white dog that appears in paintings is a trickster figure that indicates the human shadow; a blindfold woman, applying make-up, is linked to the Shekinah.

The woman represents both my idea of holiness and the feminine part of myself, which is my link to the Great Mystery—that otherness that you sense behind things but you don't know what it is.

In old paintings the dog would have represented fidelity, but it could also be an anagram of God or a trickster figure who illuminates the human shadow (the buried part of us).

[1]"Lewis has published seven books of poetry and three of short stories; he has made five reading tours in the United States and one in Nicaragua.