Fiona Benson (born 1978) is an English poet. Her collections have been shortlisted for 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 2015 and 2019. ''Vertigo and Ghost'' (2019) won Forward Prizes for best collection."Fiona Benson wins Forward prize with Greek myth poems for #MeToo age"
''Guardian'' 20 October 2019

Biography

Benson was born in

Wroughton Wroughton is a large village and civil parish in northeast Wiltshire, England. It is part of the Borough of Swindon and lies along the A4361 between Swindon and Avebury; the road into Swindon crosses the M4 motorway between junctions 15 ...

, England. She received her Master of Letters and PhD in English from Saint Andrew’s University, Scotland, where she wrote her dissertation on the Ophelia figure in Early Modern Drama. She is resident in Thorverton, Devon. Benson was a recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. The award is given by the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and ass ...

to British poets under 30. Her work was included in ''Faber New Poets'' (2009) and her debut collection, ''Bright Travellers'' was published in 2014 by Cape Poetry. Benson was shortlisted for the

for her poetry collection, ''Bright Travellers'' (2015) and also for ''Vertigo and Ghost'' (2019). Ben Wilkinson, in a review of ''Bright Travellers'' for ''The Guardian'', describes Benson as "a poet whose dark imagination mixes solemnity with lyricism, treating the poem as a kind of secular prayer." Themes in Benson's work include "violence and loss, shown most vividly in her accounts of motherhood, are paired seamlessly with moments of great tenderness" The poem 'Androgeus' was shortlisted for The 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. It comes from a long mythic sequence retelling the minotaur myth, which tries to reinstate

Pasiphaë In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë (; grc-gre, Πασιφάη, Pasipháē, lit=wide-shining derived from πάσι (archaic dative plural) "for all" and φάος/φῶς ''phaos/phos'' "light") was a queen of Crete, and wa ...

, the minotaur’s mother, at the centre of the story. This is included in her latest collection, ''Ephemeron'' (2022).

Awards

* Eric Gregory Award (2006) * Faber New Poets Award (2006) *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

First Collection Poetry Prize (2015) for ''Bright Travellers'' * Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (2015) for ''Bright Travellers'' *

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 ...

Best Single Poem (2018) from ''Vertigo and Ghost'' and also best collection.

Work

* ''Bright Travellers'', Cape Poetry, (2014) * ''Vertigo and Ghost'', Cape Poetry, (2019) * ''Ariadne'', Broken Sleep Books, (2021) * ''Ephemeron'', Jonathan Cape, (2022)Poetry Book Society
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Fiona 1978 births Living people 21st-century English poets English women poets Alumni of the University of St Andrews 21st-century English women writers