Pascale Petit (born 20 December 1953), is a French-born British poet of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. She was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and grew up in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. She trained as a sculptor at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

and was a visual artist for the first part of her life. She has travelled widely, particularly in the Peruvian and Venezuelan Amazon and India. Petit has published eight poetry collections, four of which were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her seventh collection ''Mama Amazonica'' won the RSL

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

in 2018 and the inaugural Laurel Prize for Poetry in 2020. In 2018, Petit was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Biography

Petit has published eight poetry collections: ''Heart of a Deer'' (1998), ''The Zoo Father'' (2001), ''The Huntress'' (2005), ''The Treekeeper's Tale'' (2008), ''What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo'' (2010), ''Fauverie'' (2014), ''Mama Amazonica'' (2017) and ''Tiger Girl'' (2020). She also published a pamphlet of poems ''The Wounded Deer: Fourteen Poems after Frida Kahlo'' (2005). Petit's 2020 collection ''Tiger Girl'', was shortlisted for th
Forward Prize
for Best Collection. Her 2017 collection, ''Mama Amazonica'', won the inaugural Laurel Prize for Poetry 2020, the 2018 RSL Ondaatje Prize, was a

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 chai ...

Choice and was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize. ''The Zoo Father'' (2001) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. ''Fauverie'' (2014), ''What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo'' (2010), ''The Huntress'' (2005) and ''The Zoo Father'' were all shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Three books were books of the year in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''. ''What the Water Gave Me'' was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year. Petit has been shortlisted for the

Forward 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 ...

and in 2001 she was one of ten poets commissioned by

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' ...

to write a poem for

National Poetry Day National Poetry Day is a British campaign to promote poetry, including public performances. National Poetry Day was founded in 1994 by William Sieghart. It takes place annually in the UK on the first Thursday in October. Since its inception, it ...

. In 2004, she was selected by the Poetry Book Society as one of the

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 ...

. ''The Zoo Father'' is published in a bilingual edition in Mexico and distributed in Spain and Latin America. She has received many awards, including the Cholmondeley Award, four from Arts Council England and three from the Society of Authors. Her books have been translated into Chinese, Serbian, Spanish (in Mexico) and French. She has translated poems of a number of contemporary Chinese poets including Yang Lian, Wang Xiaoni and

Zhai Yongming Zhai Yongming (born 1955) is a Chinese poet, essayist and screenwriter from Chengdu, in the southwest Sichuan Province. Born during the Maoist era, Zhai was forcibly sent away for two years to do manual labor in the countryside as part of the Cu ...

. She was Poetry Editor of '' Poetry London'' from 1990 to 2005, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Middlesex University from 2007 to 2009 and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

in 2011–12. She tutored poetry courses for

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

for nine years, and currently tutors for the

Arvon Foundation The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations. Andrew Kidd is the Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Cumper is Cha ...

, The Poetry School and

Literature Wales Literature Wales is the Welsh national literature promotion agency and society of writers, existing to promote Welsh-language and English-language literature in Wales. It offers bursaries for writing projects, runs literary events and lectures ...

. In 2018 Petit became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Australian poet Les Murray has praised her work in ''The Times Literary Supplement'', where he wrote: "No other British poet I am aware of can match the powerful mythic imagination of Pascale Petit." Jackie Kay in ''The Observer'' wrote: "Pascale's poems are as fresh as paint, and make you look all over again at Frida and her brilliant and tragic life."

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. ...

, reviewing ''What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo'' 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 ...

'' wrote: "Petit's collection is not a verse biography, but a hard-hitting, palette-knife evocation of the effect that bus crash had on Kahlo's life and work. 'And this is how I started painting. / Time stretched out its spectrum / and screeched its brakes.' WH Auden, in his elegy for

Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, tells the Irish poet: 'Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.' Petit's collection, exploring the way trauma hurts an artist into creation, celebrates the rebarbative energy with which Kahlo redeemed pain and transformed it into paint."

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Icefall Climbing'' pamphlet (Smith Doorstop, 1994) * ''Heart of a Deer'' (Enitharmon, 1998) * ''Tying the Song'' Co-editor with Mimi Khalvati (Enitharmon, 2000) * ''The Zoo Father'' (Seren, 2001) * ''El Padre Zoológico/The Zoo Father'' (El Tucan, Mexico City, 2004) * ''The Huntress'' (Seren, 2005) * ''The Wounded Deer: Fourteen poems after Frida Kahlo'' pamphlet (Smith Doorstop, 2005) * ''The Treekeeper's Tale'' (Seren, 2008) * ''What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo'' (Seren, UK, 2010,

Black Lawrence Press Black Lawrence Press is an independent publishing company founded in upstate New York by Colleen Ryor. It was an imprint of Dzanc Books from 2008 to 2013. It hosts the Big Moose Prize for the novel, the Hudson Prize and the St. Lawrence Book Awa ...

, US, 2011) * ''Poetry from Art at Tate Modern'' editor, pamphlet (Tate Publications, 2010) * ''Fauverie'' (Seren, 2014) * ''Mama Amazonica'' (Bloodaxe, 2017) * ''Tiger Girl'' (Bloodaxe, 2020)

Critical studies and reviews of Petit's work

;''Mama Amazonica'' *
Financial Times, 25 May 2018, In Praise of Pascale Petit, a poet breaking into new territory by Nilanjana Roy

Awards, prizes and fellowships

* 2000 – 'The Strait-Jackets' (from ''The Zoo Father'') shortlisted for Forward Best Single Poem Prize * 2001 – New London Writers' Award * 2001 – Arts Council England Writers' Award * 2001 – ''The Zoo Father''

Recommendation * 2001 – ''The Zoo Father'' shortlisted for

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 ...

* 2005 – ''The Huntress'' shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize * 2005 – Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award * 2006 – Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award * 2006 – Society of Author's Author's Foundation Award * 2007–09 – Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Middlesex University * 2010 – ''What the Water Gave Me'' shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize * 2011 – ''What the Water Gave me'' shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year * 2011 – Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at Courtauld Institute of Art * 2013 – Manchester Poetry Prize for five poems from ''Fauverie'' * 2014 – ''Fauverie'' shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize * 2015 –

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 ...

* 2016 – Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award * 2017 – ''Mama Amazonica'' was Poetry Book Society Choice * 2018 – ''Mama Amazonica'' wins the

* 2018 – ''Mama Amazonica'' shortlisted for Roehampton Poetry Prize * 2018 – Literature Matters Award from the Royal Society of Literature * 2018 – Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature * 2020 – 'Indian Paradise Flycatcher' wins Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry * 2020 – ''Mama Amazonica'' wins the inaugural Laurel Prize for Poetry * 2020 – 'Tiger Girl' shortlisted for Forward Prize for Best Collection * 2021 – 'Tiger Girl' shortlisted for

Wales Book of the Year The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently ad ...

(Poetry)

References

External links

*
Author's Blog

Profile and books listing at Bloodaxe publishers

Profile, works listing and videos at Seren publishers

Pascale Petit recordings on The Poetry Archive

Interview with Pascale Petit
by ''The Poetry Extension'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Pascale 1953 births Living people 20th-century French poets 21st-century French poets 20th-century Welsh poets 21st-century Welsh poets 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French women writers 20th-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh writers Welsh women poets French women poets Writers from Paris Alumni of the Royal College of Art Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Welsh people of French descent