Clare Eve Pollard

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(born 1978, England) is a British writer (poet, novelist and playwright), literary translator and (prize jury) critic. She was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 2024.

Early life and education

Pollard was raised in

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

. She was educated at Turton School in

Bromley Cross Bromley Cross is a residential area of South Turton in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It gives its name to a larger Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward, which includes Eagley, Eg ...

and read English at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, graduating in 2000.

Career

At age 19, Pollard published her first poetry collection, ''The Heavy-Petting Zoo'' (Bloodaxe, 1997). In 2000, Pollard won a Society of Authors

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by United Kingdom poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. Past winne ...

. In 2004, her play ''The Weather'' was performed at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

and also at the

Munchner Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three venues: the main stage of ...

. In 2007, ''My Male Muse'', a radio documentary was broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. In 2009, Pollard and James Byrne edited the Bloodaxe young poets showcase titled ''Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century''. Pollard has been a

Royal Literary Fund The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its lon ...

Writing Fellow at

Essex University The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass universities. The university comprises three campuses in the county, in Southend-on-Sea and ...

. In 2013, she was the judge for the inaugural international Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets, and she has since judged the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

Next Generation list, Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize, Manchester International Poetry Prize, the Northern Writer's Awards and the

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize for poetry awarded by the T. S. Eliot Foundation. For many years it was awarded by the Eliots' Poetry Book Society (UK) for "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or t ...

. From 2017 to 2022 she was the editor of ''Modern Poetry in Translation''. Thereafter, she began to work as artistic director of the Winchester Poetry Festival. In 2022, her poem ''Pollen'' was shortlisted for the

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for Best Single Poem 2022. In that same year, she published her debut novel, ''Delphi'', with Fig Tree in the UK, with Avid Reader in the USA, and Aufbau Verlag in Germany. The novel's plot centres on social

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

concerning oracles, tarot cards and London family life during the 2020 Covid lockdown, and the corresponding shift of everyday life towards the internet; the protagonist of the novel is a struggling classics professor, wife and mother facing a failing marriage, attempting to care for her ten-year-old son whilst holding her family together "against all odds". Pollard's debut children's book, ''The Untameables'', a radical retelling of Arthurian myth and legend, was published in 2024 by the Emma Press.

Private life

Clare Pollard currently (2023) lives in South London with her husband and two children.

Selected bibliography

Novels

* *

Children's books

* ''The Untameables'' (2023)

Poetry collections

* ''The Heavy-Petting Zoo'' (1998) * ''Bedtime'' (2002) * ''Look, Clare! Look!'' (2005) * ''Changeling'' (2011) * ''Incarnation'' (2017). Bloodaxe. * ''The Lives of the Female Poets'' (2019) Bad Betty Press.

Nonfiction

* ''Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books'' (2019). Fig Tree.

Plays

* ''The Weather'' (2004). Faber. * ''Ovid's Heroines'' (2013).

Anthologies edited

* ''Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century'' (2009).Pollard, C. and Byrne, J. (ed.
''Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century.''
Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, England, 2009 .

References

External links

*
Bloodaxe Books author profile page

Interview with Clare Pollard
by ''The Poetry Extension'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Clare Living people 1978 births English women poets Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Essex 21st-century British poets 21st-century English women writers