Elma Mitchell (November 19, 1919 – November 23, 2000) was a Scottish-born poet and translator based in Somerset, who published several well-received books of poetry in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in

Airdrie, North Lanarkshire Airdrie (; ; ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau 400 ft (130 m) above sea level, 12 miles (19 km) east of Glasgow. , it had a population of 37,130. Airdrie developed as a market town in the late 17th ce ...

. She attended

Prior's Field School Prior's Field is an independent girls' boarding and day school in Guildford, Surrey in the south-east of England. Founded in 1902 by Julia Huxley, it stands in 42 acres of parkland, 34 miles south-west of London and adjacent to the A3 road, whi ...

in Surrey, and won a scholarship to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

, where she gained a first in English in 1941."Prior's Field, 1941"
''Prior's Field Magazine'' (1941): 1, 8. She went on to achieve a diploma in librarianship at the School of Librarianship,

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Career

Mitchell worked as a librarian and information officer for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

during World War II (from 1941 to 1943). She moved to Buckland St Mary,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, and worked as a freelance writer and translator; she also did some amateur archaeological work in

South Cadbury South Cadbury is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of South Cadbury and Sutton Montis, in the Somerset district of the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Sutton Montis. It is famous as ...

. Some of her poems were published in ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' in the 1960s. Her "quirkily original" poem "Thoughts After Ruskin" was first published in 1967; it won awards and was included in several anthologies. She published several books of poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of Mitchell's poems have feminist themes of domestic work, body image, creative frustration, and bereavement. "Mitchell frequently alludes to the strength tapped from the life force of routine necessities and occupations, especially women's traditional occupations," noted

Marilyn Hacker Marilyn Hacker (born November 27, 1942) is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English emerita at the City College of New York. Her books of poetry include ''Presentation Piece'' (1974), which won the National Book Award, ...

in 1997. "This is a woman who is very conscious of being a body with all that implies of delight and restriction," commented poet Herbert Lomas in 1988. Mitchell died in 2000, at the age of 81, in Buckland St Mary, Somerset. Her poems continue to be included in anthologies, decades after her death.

Awards

* 1977 Cheltenham Festival Poetry Competition * 1999

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 bee ...

Works

* * * *

Anthologies

* * *

Carolyn Kizer Carolyn Ashley Kizer (December 10, 1925 – October 9, 2014) was an American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. According to an article at the Center for the Study of the Pacific N ...

(1995). ''100 Great Poems by Women''. Ecco Press. * Dorothy McMillan (2010). ''Modern Scottish Women Poets''. Cannongate Books.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Elma 1919 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Scottish poets Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford