Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. Her work won the

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

in 2002 and the

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. ...

in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding

Daljit Nagra Daljit Nagra (born 1966) is a British poet whose debut collection, ''Look We Have Coming to Dover!'' – a title alluding to W. H. Auden's ''Look, Stranger!'', D. H. Lawrence's ''Look! We Have Come Through!'' and by epigraph also to Matthew Arn ...

. On 1 October 2019, she took up the post of

Oxford Professor of Poetry The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time po ...

Biography

Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of

Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe Edward Richard Assheton Penn Curzon, 6th Earl Howe, (7 August 1908 – 29 May 1984), styled Viscount Curzon from 1929 to 1964, was a British peer. Early life and background Curzon was born in St George Hanover Square, London, Middlesex, the ...

. Oswald read Classics at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

. She then trained as a gardener and worked at such sites as

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...

Wisley __NOTOC__ Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and ...

and Clovelly Court Gardens. She currently lives on the Dartington Estate in Devon with her husband, the playwright

Peter Oswald Peter Charles Patrick Oswald (born 1965) is an English playwright specialising in verse drama, resident at Shakespeare's Globe from 1998 to 2009. Early life Oswald was born the second of four children (eldest of three sons) of farmer and sto ...

(also a trained classicist), and her three children. Alice Oswald is the sister of actor

Will Keen Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

and writer Laura Beatty and the aunt of Keen's daughter

Dafne ''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...

Works

In 1994, she was the recipient of an

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

. Her first collection of poetry, ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'' (1996), was shortlisted for a

Forward Poetry Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

(Best First Collection) in 1996, as well as the

in 1997. Her second collection, ''Dart'' (2002), combined verse and prose, and tells the story of the

River Dart The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Brythonic language (from which the river's subsequent names ultimately derive fr ...

in Devon from a variety of perspectives.

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

called it a " … moving, changing poem, as fast-flowing as the river and as deep … a celebration of difference … ". ''Dart'' won the

in 2002. In 2004, Oswald was named as one of the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) was founded in 1953 by T. S. Eliot and friends, including Sir Basil Blackwell, "to propagate the art of poetry". Eric Walter White was secretary from December 1953 until 1971, and was subsequently the society's chair ...

Next Generation poets The Next Generation poets are a list of young and middle-aged figures from British poetry, mostly British, compiled by a panel for the Poetry Book Society in 2004. This is a promotional exercise, and a sequel to the New Generation poets (1994). The ...

. Her collection ''Woods etc.'', published in 2005, was shortlisted for the

(Best Collection). In 2009 she published both ''A sleepwalk on the Severn'' and ''Weeds and Wildflowers'', which won the inaugural

Ted Hughes Award The Ted Hughes Award is an annual prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It is awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year. Background The award was established in 2009 with the permission of Carol Hughes i ...

for New Work in Poetry, and was shortlisted for the

. In October 2011, Oswald published her 6th collection, ''Memorial''. Subtitled "An Excavation of the ''Iliad''", ''Memorial'' is based on the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

'' attributed to

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

, but departs from the

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

form of the ''

'' to focus on, and so commemorate, the individual named characters whose deaths are mentioned in that poem. Later in October 2011, ''Memorial'' was shortlisted for the

, but in December 2011, Oswald withdrew the book from the shortlist, citing concerns about the ethics of the prize's sponsors. In 2013, Memorial won the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

’s Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for poetry in translation. Oswald was a judge for the

in 2016. In 2017, she won the

for her seventh collection of poems, '' Falling Awake''.

Bibliography

* 1996: ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'', Oxford University Press, * 2002: ''

Dart Dart or DART may refer to: * Dart, the equipment in the game of darts Arts, entertainment and media * Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero * Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe'' * Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character * Dar ...

'', Faber and Faber, * 2002: ''Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge'' (co-edited with

and Robert Woof),

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

& The

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

Trust, * 2005: ''The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet'' (editor), Faber and Faber, * 2005: ''Woods etc.'' Faber and Faber, * 2009: ''Weeds and Wild Flowers'', Faber and Faber, * 2009: ''A sleepwalk on the Severn'', Faber and Faber, * 2011: ''Memorial'', Faber and Faber, * 2016: '' Falling Awake'', Jonathan Cape * 2019: ''Nobody'', Jonathan Cape * 2020: ''A Short Story of Falling'' - Metal Engravings by Maribel Mas. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry

Awards and recognition

* 1994:

* 1996: Arts Foundation Award for Poetry * 1996: shortlisted for

(Best First Collection), ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'' * 1997: shortlisted for

, for ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'' * 2002:

for ''

'' * 2005: shortlisted for

(Best Poetry Collection of the Year), for ''Woods etc.'' * 2005: shortlisted for

for ''Woods etc.'' * 2007:

(Best Single Poem) for 'Dunt' * 2009:

for New Work in Poetry for ''Weeds and Wild Flowers'' * 2011: shortlisted for

, for ''Memorial'', subsequently withdrawn due to Oswald's ethical concerns. *2013:

Warwick Prize for Writing The Warwick Prize for Writing was an international literary prize, worth £25,000, that was given biennially for writing excellence in the English language, in any genre or form, on a theme that changes with every award. It was launched by the Univ ...

, winner for ''Memorial'' *2013: Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry, winner for ''Memorial'' *2016: Costa Award for Poetry for '' Falling Awake'' *2017:

for ''Falling Awake''

References

External links

Contemporarywriters.com
Alice Oswald – Biography and Analysis of her Works
Poetry Archive profile with poems written and audio

Interview with Oswald
''Magama'' magazine, issue 51 2008. "Presiding Spirits".

* ttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/30/alice-oswald-ted-hughes-award ''Guardian'' article 30 March 2010: ''Alice Oswald wins inaugural Ted Hughes award'' Accessed 2010-03-31
'Tithonus 46 minutes in the life of the dawn' 'Alice Oswald'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Alice 1966 births Living people English women poets 20th-century English poets 21st-century English poets 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers Oxford Professors of Poetry T. S. Eliot Prize winners Costa Book Award winners The New Yorker people