JULIA COPUS
Presentation:
- “Poetry Reading” (Spring Semester 2008)
She was born in London in 1969, and studied Latin at Durham University, winning an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1994. In the same year a pamphlet, Walking in the Shadows, was published, this collection having been a winner in the Poetry Business competition. In 2002 she won the National Poetry Competition with her poem, 'Breaking the Rule'. Writing residencies have included the Borough of Blackburn-with-Darwen and Southampton Institute. From 2005-2008, she was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University, and in January 2007, Poet in Residence at The Guardian. In 2003, she collaborated with sculptor Stephen Broadbent, and wrote a poem now inscribed on a bronze bench/sculpture in Fleming Square, Blackburn. Her two collections of poetry, The Shuttered Eye (1995) and In Defence of Adultery (2003), were both Poetry Book Society Recommendations, and the former was shortlisted for the 1997 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection). In 2003, her radio play Eenie Meenie Macka Racka was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 and won the 2002 BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award. Her latest play is The Enormous Radio, based on a short story by John Cheever, and broadcast in 2008. Julia Copus is an experienced writing teacher and workshop leader, and teaches regularly for the Arvon Foundation. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Exeter English Department and an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. In 2009, her book, Brilliant Writing Tips for Students, was published, and in 2010 she won the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem) for her poem, 'An Easy Passage'.