CLARE POLLARD
Presentation:
- “Poetry Reading” (Spring Semester 2008)
Clare Pollard was born in Bolton in 1978 and currently lives in East London. Her first collection of poetry, The Heavy-Petting Zoo(Bloodaxe, 1998) was written whilst she was still at school, and received an Eric Gregory Award. It was followed by Bedtime(Bloodaxe, 2002) and Look, Clare! Look! (Bloodaxe, 2005), which was made a set text on the WJEC A-level syllabus. Her fourth collection Changeling, was published in June 2011, and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her first play The Weather(Faber, 2004) premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, and has since been performed at the Munchner Kammerspiele in Munich. In 2003 she won a Society of Authors travel award and an Arts Council writer’s award. The Independent named her one of their Top Writers Under 30. Clare supports herself by working as a journalist, editor and teacher. She was Assistant Director of the Clerkenwell Literary Festival from 2002-5. She has been Managing Editor of The Idler, and had articles published in The Guardian, The Independent, The TES, London Magazine and Critical Quarterly. As well as appearances on The Verb, Woman’s Hour, Poetry Pleaseand Newsnight Review, she has written and presented two documentaries for television and one for radio, ‘My Male Muse’ (2007), which was a Radio 4 Pick of the Year. Clare was a Royal Literary Fellow at Essex University, and teaches for Arvon, The Poetry School and The City Lit. She is on the editorial board of Magma poetry magazine, and has co-edited an anthology for Bloodaxe with James Byrne, entitled Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21stsCentury.