
Claire Armitstead is a British journalist and author. She is Associate Editor (Culture) at ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'', where she has worked since 1992. She is also a cultural commentator on literature and the arts, and makes appearances on radio and television, as well as leading workshops and chairing literary events in the UK and at international festivals. She has judged literary competitions including the
Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, the
OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is an international literary prize awarded annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing about South AsiaNote: South Asia for the purposes of the prize is defined as India, Pakistan, Sri Lan ...
, the
PEN Pinter Prize and the
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition ...
.
Biography
Armitstead was born in south London, England, and spent her early childhood in Northern Nigeria, attending primary school in
Kaduna
Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the gateway to northern Nig ...
.
She worked as a trainee reporter in South Wales, before joining the ''
Hampstead & Highgate Express
The Ham & High, officially the Hampstead & Highgate Express is a weekly paid newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden by Archant.
The newspaper is priced at £1 and is published every Thursday.
History
Founded in 1860, from 1862 it ...
'' as a theatre critic and sub-editor, moving from there to the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...
'' and then in 1992 to ''The Guardian'', where she has been Arts Editor, Literary Editor (in which position she was described as "Respected blue-stocking and keen cyclist who keeps the wheels turning on ever more ambitious books pages"), Head of Books and, most recently, Associate Editor (Culture).
Armitstead's essays have been published in ''New Performance'' (Macmillan, 1994) and ''Women: A Cultural Review'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), and she edited ''Tales of Two Londons: Stories From a Fractured City'' (
O/R Books, 2018), an anthology that "sets out to mirror London's diversity by ensuring that more than a third of the voices are of those not born in the UK."
Armitstead has been a judge for literary competitions as varied as the 2015
Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, the
OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is an international literary prize awarded annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing about South AsiaNote: South Asia for the purposes of the prize is defined as India, Pakistan, Sri Lan ...
, the 2020
PEN Pinter Prize and the 2020
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition ...
. She has been a trustee of
English PEN
Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associati ...
since 2013.
Armitstead presents ''The Guardian''s weekly books podcast. The podcast includes interviews with authors. The show is cohosted by Richard Lea and Sian Cain. The show discusses poetry, books, and other works of literature.
Bibliography
* (Editor) ''Tales of Two Londons: Stories From a Fractured City'',
O/R Books, 2018, . Arcadia Books, 2019, .
References
External links
"Claire Armitstead" Muck Rack.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armitstead, Claire
Living people
Writers from London
Year of birth missing (living people)
British women journalists
The Guardian journalists
Women anthologists
20th-century British journalists
21st-century British journalists
21st-century British women writers
British women essayists
British women non-fiction writers
British theatre critics