Clare Pollard (born 1978, England) is a British writer (poet, novelist and playwright), literary translator and (prize jury) critic.

Clare Pollard
Born1978
Bolton, Greater Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
EducationCambridge University
Known forPoetry
Websiteclarepollard.com

Early life and education edit

Pollard was raised in Bolton[citation needed]. She was educated at Turton School in Bromley Cross. She read English at Cambridge University.[1]

Career edit

At age 19 Pollard published her first poetry collection, The Heavy-Petting Zoo (Bloodaxe Books Ltd. (1997))[2] In 2000, Pollard won a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award.

In 2004, her play The Weather was performed at the Royal Court Theatre[3] and as well at the Munchner Kammerspiele.[4] In 2007, My Male Muse, a radio documentary was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[5][6]

In 2009, Pollard and James Byrne edited the Bloodaxe young poets showcase titled Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century.[7] Pollard has been a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Essex University.[8] In 2013, she was the judge for the inaugural international Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets[citation needed], and she has since judged the PBS Next Generation list, Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize, Manchester International Poetry Prize, the Northern Writer's Awards and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

From 2017 to 2022 she has been the editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Instead she began to work as artistic director of the Winchester Poetry Festival in 2022, her poem Pollen was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2022 and she published her debut novel , Delphi.[9] The novel plot is about social satire on oracles, tarot cards and London family life during the 2020 Covid pandemic lockdown and the shift of everyday life into the internet. It appeared in print 2022 by Fig Tree in the UK and by Avid Reader in the US as well as by Aufbau Verlag in Germany.

Private life edit

Clare Pollard currently (2023) lives in South London with her husband and two children.[10]

Selected bibliography edit

  • The Heavy Petting Zoo (1998).[11]
  • Bedtime (2002).[12]
  • The Weather (2004) Faber.
  • Look, Clare! Look! (2005).[13]
  • Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (2009).[14]
  • Changling (2011).[15]
  • Ovid's Heroines (2013).[16]
  • Incarnation (2017) Bloodaxe.
  • Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books (2019) Fig Tree.
  • The Lives of the Female Poets (2019) Bad Betty Press.
  • Delphi, novel, (2022) Fig Tree.

References edit

  1. ^ Clare Pollard. Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Poetry International Web.
  2. ^ Sears J. The Heavy-Petting Zoo by Clare Pollard. Pop Matters
  3. ^ "A season of new plays by young writers developed by the Royal Court Young Writers Programme". royalcourttheatre.com. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  4. ^ "Clare Pollard: Poet, Playwright, Non-fiction writer". rlf.org.uk / Royal Literary Fund. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  5. ^ The Weather bear hug Royal Court London. The Independent. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  6. ^ Staff Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Fleet Architects. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  7. ^ Crown S. Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century. The Guardian Accessed 20 September 2015.
  8. ^ British Council for Literature – Clare Pollard Archived 19 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Contemporarywriters.com Accessed 20 September 2015.
  9. ^ "Clare Pollard author profile". bloodaxebooks.com. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  10. ^ "About Clare by herself". Homepage. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  11. ^ Pollard, C. The Heavy Petting Zoo. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England 1998. ISBN 978-1852244811.
  12. ^ Pollard, C. Bedtime. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2002 ISBN 978-1852245931.
  13. ^ Pollard, C. Look, Clare!, Look! Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2005. ISBN 978-1852247096.
  14. ^ Pollard, C. and Byrne, J. (ed.) Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2009 ISBN 978-1852248383.
  15. ^ Changling. The Poetry Archive 2011. ISBN 978-1852249113 Accessed 21 September 2015.
  16. ^ Nota Benes. World Literature Today, 2013. ISBN 978-1852249762. Retrieved 21 September 2015.

External links edit