Helen Farish

She received her B.A. from University of Durham, M.A. and Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University.

She lectured in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University.[1]

She has been a Fellow at Hawthornden International Centre for Writers and was the first female Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust (2004-5). She has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Sewanee University, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of New Hampshire.

Beginning 2007, she lectures full-time at Lancaster University, in the department of English and Creative Writing.[2]

She now lives in Cumbria.

• Intimates 2005 Forward best first collection, shortlist for the 2005 TS Eliot prize.

• Intimates. Cape Poetry. 2005. ISBN 978-0-224-07279-3.

Helen Farish's intensely suggestive title is central to the tone and impact of her book, which has won the 2005 Forward best first collection prize. As a noun, it promises secrets and, true to her word, Farish lifts the lid on the minutiae of her life, furnishing her poems with personal possessions ("my father's dressing gown", "the advent calendar / John made me") and unveiling and discussing her body and sexuality. As a verb, however, it hints and alludes, undercutting the simplicity of her physical candour. In the opening poem, the first impression of blithe self-assurance ("Seeing you makes me want to lift up my top, / breathe in and say Look! Look at these!") is subverted by the final line when the speaker retreats into defensiveness, anxiously pleading "Don't tell me not to."[3]

• "Helen Farish's workshop", The Guardian, 21 December 2005
• "Helen Farish", The Poetry Archive
• "Helen Farish and Feminine Poetic Identity", Adrien Grafe, E-rea, 6.1.2008, Université de Paris
• "forty-five: Helen Farish", 30 November 2008, fifty-two poets