Clare Pollard

Clare Pollard
FRSL
Born1978 (age 46–47)
Bolton, Greater Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
EducationCambridge University
Known forPoetry
Websiteclarepollard.com

Clare Pollard FRSL (born 1978, England) is a British writer (poet, novelist and playwright), literary translator and (prize jury) critic. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.[1]

Early life and education

Pollard was raised in Bolton.[2] She was educated at Turton School in Bromley Cross and read English at Cambridge University.[3]

Career

At age 19, Pollard published her first poetry collection, The Heavy-Petting Zoo (Bloodaxe, 1997).[4] In 2000, Pollard won a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award. In 2004, her play The Weather was performed at the Royal Court Theatre[5] and also at the Munchner Kammerspiele.[2] In 2007, My Male Muse, a radio documentary was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[6][7]

In 2009, Pollard and James Byrne edited the Bloodaxe young poets showcase titled Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century.[8] Pollard has been a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Essex University.[9] In 2013, she was the judge for the inaugural international Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets,[10] and she has since judged the Poetry Book Society Next Generation list, Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize, Manchester International Poetry Prize, the Northern Writer's Awards and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

From 2017 to 2022 she was the editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Thereafter, she began to work as artistic director of the Winchester Poetry Festival. In 2022, her poem Pollen was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2022.[11] In that same year, she published her debut novel, Delphi, with Fig Tree in the UK, with Avid Reader in the USA, and Aufbau Verlag in Germany.[12] The novel's plot centres on social satire concerning oracles, tarot cards and London family life during the 2020 Covid lockdown, and the corresponding shift of everyday life towards the internet; the protagonist of the novel is a struggling classics professor, wife and mother facing a failing marriage, attempting to care for her ten-year-old son whilst holding her family together "against all odds".[13]

Pollard's debut children's book, The Untameables, a radical retelling of Arthurian myth and legend, was published in 2024 by the Emma Press.[14]

Private life

Clare Pollard currently (2023) lives in South London with her husband and two children.[15]

Selected bibliography

  • The Heavy Petting Zoo (1998).[16]
  • Bedtime (2002).[17]
  • The Weather (2004) Faber.
  • Look, Clare! Look! (2005).[18]
  • Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (2009).[19]
  • Changling (2011).[20]
  • Ovid's Heroines (2013).[21][22]
  • Incarnation (2017) Bloodaxe.
  • Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books (2019) Fig Tree.
  • The Lives of the Female Poets (2019) Bad Betty Press.
  • Delphi, novel, (2022) Fig Tree. [23][24][25][26]
  • Pollard, Clare (23 July 2024). The Modern Fairies. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-6680-4941-9.[27][28][29]

References

  1. ^ "Announcement of 2024 Fellows and Honorary Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. 11 July 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Royal Literary Fund Fellow biography: Clare Pollard - Poet, Non-fiction writer, Playwright". Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  3. ^ Clare Pollard. Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Poetry International Web.
  4. ^ Sears J. The Heavy-Petting Zoo by Clare Pollard. Pop Matters
  5. ^ "A season of new plays by young writers developed by the Royal Court Young Writers Programme". royalcourttheatre.com. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  6. ^ The Weather bear hug Royal Court London. The Independent. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  7. ^ Staff Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Fleet Architects. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  8. ^ Crown S. Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century. The Guardian Accessed 20 September 2015.
  9. ^ British Council for Literature – Clare Pollard Archived 19 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Contemporarywriters.com Accessed 20 September 2015.
  10. ^ "Hippocrates Prize, as launched by Warwick University (online press release)". www.warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Clare Pollard: The Gift (poem)". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  12. ^ "Clare Pollard author profile". bloodaxebooks.com. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  13. ^ "Clare Pollard: "Fiction: This Novel Is a Time Machine"; review of Delphi in the New York Times (written by Lynn Steger)". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  14. ^ "Clare Pollard: The Untameables - Just Imagine". Just Imagine -. 12 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  15. ^ "About Clare by herself". Homepage. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  16. ^ Pollard, C. The Heavy Petting Zoo. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England 1998. ISBN 978-1852244811.
  17. ^ Pollard, C. Bedtime. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2002 ISBN 978-1852245931.
  18. ^ Pollard, C. Look, Clare!, Look! Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2005. ISBN 978-1852247096.
  19. ^ Pollard, C. and Byrne, J. (ed.) Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century. Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2009 ISBN 978-1852248383.
  20. ^ Changling. The Poetry Archive 2011. ISBN 978-1852249113 Accessed 21 September 2015.
  21. ^ Nota Benes. World Literature Today, 2013. ISBN 978-1852249762. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  22. ^ Haynes, Natalie (14 June 2013). "Ovid's Heroines by Clare Pollard – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  23. ^ "Clare Pollard's Delphi: A Greek tragedy for the post-pandemic era". Clare Pollard’s Delphi: A Greek tragedy for the post-pandemic era - University of Richmond's Student Newspaper. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  24. ^ "Know Thyself: On Clare Pollard's "Delphi"". Los Angeles Review of Books. 15 August 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  25. ^ Self, John (9 August 2022). "Delphi by Clare Pollard review – when Covid meets the classics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  26. ^ Strong, Lynn Steger (2 August 2022). "Book Review: "Delphi," by Clare Pollard". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  27. ^ Ashworth, Samuel (24 July 2024). "Review". Washington Post. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  28. ^ Walsh, S. Kirk (20 July 2024). "Book Review: 'The Modern Fairies,' by Clare Pollard". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  29. ^ Self, John (6 June 2024). "The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard review". The Times & The Sunday Times. Retrieved 8 September 2024.