Selima Hill (born 13 October 1945) is a British
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
. She has published twenty poetry collections since 1984. Her 1997 collection, ''Violet'', was shortlisted for the most important British poetry awards: the
Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), the
T. S. Eliot Prize and the
Whitbread Poetry Award. She was selected as recipient of the 2022
King's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Early life and education
Selima Hill was born 13 October, 1945 in
Hampstead,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to a family of artists. Her parents and her grandparent were painters. She lived in rural England and Wales when she was young. Hill attended boarding school and later won a scholarship to study
Moral Sciences
Human science (or human sciences in the plural), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our ...
at New Hall,
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' ...
. She attended Cambridge from 1965 to 1967.
Career
Hill's first poetry collection, ''Saying Hello at the Station'' (
Chatto & Windus), was published in 1984.
Selima Hill won first prize in the 1988 Arvon Foundation/Observer International Poetry Competition for her long poem, ''The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness'', and her 1997 collection, ''Violet'', was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. Her poetry collection, ''Bunny'' (2001), a series of poems about a young girl growing up in the 1950s, won the Whitbread Poetry Award, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice.
Later poetry collections are ''The Hat'' (2008); ''Fruitcake'' (2009); ''People Who Like Meatballs'' (2012), shortlisted for both the Forward Poetry Prize and the Costa Poetry Award; ''The Sparkling Jewel of Naturism'' (2014); ''Jutland'' (2015), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation which was shortlisted for the 2015 T.S. Eliot Prize and was earlier shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize; ''The Magnitude of My Sublime Existence'' (2016), shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize 2017; ''Splash like Jesus'' (2017); and ''I May Be Stupid But I'm Not That Stupid'' (2019). Her latest collection, ''Men Who Feed Pigeons'', was published by
Bloodaxe Books in 2021 and shortlisted for both the Forward and T.S. Eliot Prizes.
Hill was awarded a 1991 Writing Fellowship at the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
, was writer-in-residence at the
Royal Festival Hall in 1992, and at the
Science Museum in London
The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019.
Like other publicly funded ...
in 1996. She taught at the
Poetry School and
Poetry Library
The National Poetry Library is a free public collection housed at Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre. Situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the river Thames, the library aims to hold all contemporar ...
in London in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hill was awarded a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the
University of Exeter
, mottoeng = "We Follow the Light"
, established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter)
, type = Public
, ...
(2003—2006)."
Hill has also taught creative writing in hospitals and prisons.
She has lived in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
for the last forty years.
Th
Hill (Selima) Archiveis held a
Newcastle University Library Special Collections and Archives
In January 2023, it was announced that Hill had been approved to be awarded the
King's Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2022, having been selected by a committee chaired by the Poet Laureate
Simon Armitage
Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...
, on the basis of her body of work, in particular ''Gloria: Selected Poems'' (Bloodaxe Books, 2008). Armitage stated: "“Selima Hill is an inimitable talent. The mind is fragile and unreliable in her poetry, but is also tenacious and surprising, capable of the most extraordinary responses, always fighting back with language as its survival kit. ...Hill's writing is eminently readable and approachable, even fun at times, the voice of a person and a poet who will not be quieted and will not conform to expectations, especially poetic ones."
Critique
Poet Fiona Sampson says of her work,
"Selima Hill's 1984 collection ''Saying Hello at the Station'' introduced arguably the most distinctive truth teller to emerge in British poetry since Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...
. In the quarter-century since that debut, her voice has deepened and strengthened as its subject matter has widened from bereavement and life in a psychiatric unit to more general difficulties with men, family relationships, and the business of living. The simultaneous publication of Hill's new collection ''The Hat'', and a ''Selected Poems, Gloria'', is the perfect moment to rediscover this inimitably exhilarating poet".
Awards and honours
* 1986:
Cholmondeley Award
The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has be ...
* 1988: Arvon Foundation/Observer International Poetry Competition, 1st prize
* 2001:
Whitbread Poetry Award, ''Bunny''
* University of East Anglia Writing Fellowship
* 2010:
Michael Marks Poetry Award, ''Advice on Wearing Animal Prints''
* 2022:
King's Gold Medal for Poetry
Selected works
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*''Jumping Over Trees: Poems from the Poetry Library, London''. The Poetry Library and Royal Festival Hall Education, 2000.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Selima
1945 births
Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge
British women poets
Living people
People from Dorset
People from Hampstead