Kate Clanchy

Kate Clanchy (born 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish poet, freelance writer and teacher.

For the scientist, see Kate Clancy.

Kate Clanchy
Born1965 (age 55–56)
Glasgow, Scotland
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupationpoet, teacher, writer
Known forSlattern, Sammarkand
AwardsEric Gregory Award
Forward Poetry Prize
Scottish First Book of the Year
Orwell Prize for Political Writing

Education

She was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh and at the University of Oxford, where she studied English.[1]

Career

She lived in London's East End for several years, before moving to Oxfordshire where she now works as a teacher, journalist and freelance writer.

Her poetry and seven radio plays have been broadcast by BBC Radio. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper; her work appeared in The Scotsman, the New Statesman and Poetry Review. She also writes for radio and broadcasts on the World Service and BBC Radio 3 and 4. 2009.[2] She is a Creative Writing Fellow of Oxford Brookes University and teaches Creative Writing at the Arvon Foundation. She is currently one of the writers-in-residence at the charity First Story. Her poetry has been included in A Book of Scottish Verse (2002) [3] and The Edinburgh book of twentieth-century Scottish poetry (2006) [4]

Prizes and awards

Bibliography
  • Slattern. Picador. 2001. ISBN 978-0-330-48929-4. 1st edition Chatto & Windus, 1995
  • Samarkand. Picador. 1999. ISBN 978-0-330-37194-0.
  • All The Poems You Need To Say Hello. Picador. 2004. ISBN 978-0-330-43384-6. (editor)
  • Newborn. Macmillan UK. 2006. ISBN 978-0-330-41931-4. 1st edition Picador, 2004
  • Our Cat Henry Comes to the Swings. illustrated Jemima Bird. Oxford University Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-272557-8.CS1 maint: others (link)
  • What Is She Doing Here?: A Refugee's Story. Picador. 2008. ISBN 978-0-330-44382-1.
  • Meeting the English. Picador. 2013. ISBN 978-0-330-53527-4.
  • Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. Picador. 2019. ISBN 978-1-5098-4029-8.

Reviews

Lorna Gibb in The Independent commented:

Kate Clanchy's new book, What Is She Doing Here?, can be described as a memoir of her relationship with a Kosovan refugee, Antigona, but it is much more than that. Antigona escapes from her devastated village by way of Italy to London, where she meets, befriends and is employed by Clanchy. The bond between the two women is fraught but strong, caught in the contradiction of their roles as employer, employee and friend. But, as Clanchy finds the words to write Antigona's story, we begin to hear Antigona's own voice, one that both educates and angers the narrator, and, above all, makes her question many things about her life.[9]

Marina Benjamin in The Telegraph wrote:

Clanchy has done a marvellous thing. By giving voice to a refugee and telling a story that would otherwise have gone unheard, she reminds us both of the solidarity that exists between women, and of how far feminism - not just as an ideology, but as a system governing economic transaction - has yet to go.[10]

The critic Deryn Rees-Jones has said:

Kate Clanchy is notable for her tightly-written lyrics that explore thirtysomething life in the post-feminist era. Newborn, her third collection of poems, depends largely on a sense of recognition. It attempts to draw on common experiences of women, and the unfamiliar world they enter once they have boarded the pregnancy train and realise, to use Sylvia Plath's metaphor, that "there's no getting off".[11]

References
  1. Wilby, Peter (5 November 2019). "Teacher who helps migrant children turn pain into prize poetry". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  2. "StAnza Festival 2017". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  3. Maurice Lindsay, ed. (2002). A Book of Scottish Verse. Robert Hale. ISBN 978-0-7090-6901-0.
  4. Maurice Lindsay; Lesley Duncan, eds. (2006). "Mitigation". The Edinburgh book of twentieth-century Scottish poetry. Edinburgh University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7486-2015-9. Kate Clanchy.
  5. "Forward Arts Foundation Alumni".
  6. "Scottish Arts Council - Literature - Book Awards 2009 - Non-fiction". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  7. Mark Brown (26 November 2013). "Costa book awards 2013: late author on all-female fiction shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  8. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/political-writing/some-kids-i-taught-and-what-they-taught-me/
  9. Lorna Gibb (22 June 2008). "What Is She Doing Here? By Kate Clanchy". The Independent.
  10. Marina Benjamin (13 July 2008). "A poet and her cleaner". The Telegraph.
  11. Deryn Rees-Jones (7 June 2004). "Newborn, by Kate Clanchy". The Independent.
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