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

Early life and education

Pollard was raised in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

. She was educated at

Turton School Turton School is a mixed comprehensive secondary school and sixth form in Bromley Cross, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.

in Bromley Cross. She read English at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

Career

At age 19 Pollard published her first poetry collection, ''The Heavy-Petting Zoo'' (Bloodaxe Books Ltd. (1997)) In 2000, Pollard won a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award. In 2004, her play ''The Weather'' was performed at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

and as well at the Munchner Kammerspiele. In 2007, ''My Male Muse'', a radio documentary was broadcast on

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' ...

. In 2009, Pollard and James Byrne edited the Bloodaxe young poets showcase titled ''Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century.'' Pollard has been a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at

Essex University The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Ess ...

. In 2013, she was the judge for the inaugural international Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets, 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''. 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

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

Selected bibliography

* ''The Heavy Petting Zoo'' (1998). * ''Bedtime'' (2002). * ''The Weather'' (2004) Faber. * ''Look, Clare! Look!'' (2005). * ''Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century'' (2009). * ''Changling'' (2011). * ''Ovid's Heroines'' (2013).''Nota Benes.''
World Literature Today, 2013. . Retrieved 21 September 2015. * ''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

External links

*
Bloodaxe Books author profile page

Interview with Clare Pollard
by ''The Poetry Extension'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Clare Living people 1978 births English women poets Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Essex 21st-century British poets 21st-century English women writers