Alice Oswald

Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding Daljit Nagra. From 1 October 2019 until 30 September 2023, she was the Oxford Professor of Poetry.

Biography

Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe. Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford. She then trained as a gardener and worked at such sites as Chelsea Physic Garden, Wisley and Clovelly Court Gardens. As of 2016, she was living near Totnes, Devon with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald (also a trained classicist), and her three children. Alice Oswald is the sister of actor Will Keen and writer Laura Beatty and the aunt of Keen's daughter Dafne.

Works

In 1994, she was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. Her first collection of poetry, ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'' (1996), was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) in 1996, as well as the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1997.

Her second collection, ''Dart'' (2002), combined verse and prose, and tells the story of the River Dart in Devon from a variety of perspectives. Jeanette Winterson called it a " … moving, changing poem, as fast-flowing as the river and as deep … a celebration of difference … ". ''Dart'' won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002.

In 2004, Oswald was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets. Her collection ''Woods etc.'', published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection).

In 2009 she published both ''A sleepwalk on the Severn'' and ''Weeds and Wildflowers'', which won the inaugural Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

In October 2011, Oswald published her 6th collection, ''Memorial''. Subtitled "An Excavation of the ''Iliad''", ''Memorial'' is based on the ''Iliad'' attributed to Homer but departs from the narrative form of the ''Iliad'' to focus on, and so commemorate, the individual named characters whose deaths are mentioned in that poem. Later in October 2011, ''Memorial'' was short-listed for the T. S. Eliot Prize, but in December 2011, Oswald withdrew the book from the short list, citing concerns about the ethics of the prize's sponsors. In 2013, ''Memorial'' won the Poetry Society’s Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for poetry in translation.

Oswald was a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016. In 2017, she won the Griffin Poetry Prize for her seventh collection of poems, '' Falling Awake''.

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections
* 1996: ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'', Oxford University Press,
* 2002: '' Dart'', Faber and Faber,
* 2005: ''Woods etc.'' Faber and Faber,
* 2009: ''Weeds and Wild Flowers'', Faber and Faber,
* 2009: ''A sleepwalk on the Severn'', Faber and Faber,
* 2011: ''Memorial'', Faber and Faber,
* 2016: '' Falling Awake'', Jonathan Cape
* 2019: ''Nobody'', Jonathan Cape
* 2020: ''A Short Story of Falling'' - Metal Engravings by Maribel Mas. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
;Anthologies (edited)
* 2002: ''Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge'' (co-edited with Peter Oswald and Robert Woof), Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust,
* 2005: ''The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet'' (editor), Faber and Faber,
* 2024: ''Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems'' (editor), New York University Press,
;List of poems

Awards and recognition

* 1994: Eric Gregory Award
* 1996: Arts Foundation Award for Poetry
* 1996: winner of the Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection), ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile''
* 1997: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize, for ''The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile''
* 2002: T. S. Eliot Prize for '' Dart''
* 2005: shortlisted for Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), for ''Woods etc.''
* 2005: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize for ''Woods etc.''
* 2007: Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem) for 'Dunt'
* 2009: Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for ''Weeds and Wild Flowers''
* 2011: short-listed for T. S. Eliot Prize, for ''Memorial'', subsequently withdrawn due to Oswald's ethical concerns
*2013: Warwick Prize for Writing, winner for ''Memorial''
*2013: Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry, winner for ''Memorial''
*2016: Costa Award for Poetry for '' Falling Awake''
*2017: Griffin Poetry Prize for ''Falling Awake''

References

External links

Contemporarywriters.com
Alice Oswald – Biography and Analysis of her Works
Poetry Archive profile with poems written and audio

Interview with Oswald
''Magama'' magazine, issue 51 2008. "Presiding Spirits".

* ttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/30/alice-oswald-ted-hughes-award ''Guardian'' article 30 March 2010: ''Alice Oswald wins inaugural Ted Hughes award'' Accessed 2010-03-31
'Tithonus 46 minutes in the life of the dawn' 'Alice Oswald'

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Alice
1966 births
Living people
20th-century English poets
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English poets
21st-century English women writers
Alumni of New College, Oxford
Costa Book Award winners
Alice
English women poets
Alice
The New Yorker people
Oxford Professors of Poetry
T. S. Eliot Prize winners
Writers from Reading, Berkshire