Karen McCarthy Woolf (born 1966) is a poet of English and Jamaican parentage.

Early life and education

Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in London to English and Jamaican parents. Her father emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1957 as a part of the

Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...

, and her experience and identity as a mixed-race woman has informed her poetry. She has a PhD (2018) from

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

: her thesis title was ''At the centre of the edge : contemporary ecological poetry and the sacred hybrid'', and it focussed on the work of

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; born April 22, 1943) is an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". He ...

Kei Miller Kei Miller (born 24 October 1978) is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing.Joy Harjo Joy Harjo ( ; born May 9, 1951) is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetr ...

Writing career

McCarthy Woolf was mentored on

The Complete Works The complete works of an artist, writer, musician, group, etc., is a collection of all of their cultural works. For example, '' Complete Works of Shakespeare'' is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. A ''Complete ...

poets of colour mentoring scheme initiated by

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Black ...

to redress representational invisibility. McCarthy Woolf's 2014 book ''An Aviary of Small Birds'' was shortlisted for the 2015 Best First Collection award of the

Forward Prizes for Poetry 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 ...

and the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and chosen as an ''Observer'' poetry book of the month. The poem "Outside" from her ''Seasonal Disturbances'' was chosen by

Carol Rumens Carol Rumens FRSL (born 10 December 1944) is a British poet. Life Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to grammar school and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before completing her d ...

as "Poem of the Week" in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in December 2017. In 2019, McCarthy Woolf was appointed Poet in Residence at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

. McCarthy Woolf won second place in the 2020

Laurel Prize The is an award presented annually in Japan since 1961 by the Japan Railfan Club. It is awarded for railway vehicles that entered service in the previous year and voted by the selection committee as having the most outstanding functional and des ...

for her collection ''Seasonal Disturbances''. In 2021 she was one of the judges of the 2020

National Poetry Competition The National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978 in the United Kingdom. It is run by the UK-based Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition ...

Selected publications

Authored

*''The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers'' (2006, Spread The Word, ) *''An Aviary of Small Birds'' (2014,

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year. History ''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...

, ) *''Seasonal Disturbances'' (2017, Carcanet, )

Edited

*''Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry'' (1998,

The Women's Press The Women's Press was a feminist publishing company established in London in 1977. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, the Women's Press was a highly visible presence, publishing feminist literature. Founding In 1977, Stephanie Dowrick cofou ...

, ) *''Ten: The New Wave'' (2014,

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

, ) *''Ten: Poets of the New Generation'' (2017, Bloodaxe, ) *''Unwritten : Caribbean Poems after the First World War '' (2018, Nine Arches Press, )

References

External links

*
"Karen McCarthy Woolf In conversation with Forward Arts Foundation"Interview with Karen McCarthy Woolf
by ''The Poetry Extension'' 21st-century English poets 21st-century English women writers 1966 births Black British women writers English people of Jamaican descent English women poets Living people Women anthologists {{UK-poet-stub