Frieda Rebecca Hughes (born 1 April 1960) is an English-Australian poet and painter. She has published seven children's books, four

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

collections and one short story and has had many exhibitions. Hughes is the daughter of

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winning American novelist and poet

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

and

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

, who was

Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom The British poet laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation ...

from 1984 until his death in 1998.

Career

Hughes graduated from

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

, London, with a BA (Hons.) in 1988. In June 2002, she received an Invention and Innovation award from the

National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is a British foundation, registered as a charity, which supports innovation. Nesta was originally funded by a £250 million endowment from the UK National Lotter ...

for her project Forty Years. From 2006 to 2008 she wrote a weekly poetry column for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' newspaper and in 2008 was chair judge for the

Forward Prizes for Poetry 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 ...

and a judge for the

National Poetry Competition The National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978 in the United Kingdom. It is run by UK-based The Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition ...

. In February 2010, she was a guest on ''

Private Passions ''Private Passions'' is a weekly music discussion programme that has been running since 15 April 1995 on BBC Radio 3, presented by composer Michael Berkeley. The production was formerly made by Classic Arts Productions, a British radio and audi ...

'', the biographical music discussion programme on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

. In October 2015, Hughes spoke for the first time about her father as part of the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

documentary ''Ted Hughes: Stronger Than Death''. In April 2023, Hughes appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme '' Saturday Live'' speaking about her book ''George'' about her rescue of a

magpie Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent c ...

chick.

Family and personal life

Hughes is the daughter of the poets

and

. Her mother was an American novelist and poet, and her father was the British poet laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. Her mother died by suicide when Hughes was almost three; her father died of a heart attack while being treated for cancer. Hughes' brother,

Nicholas Hughes Nicholas Farrar Hughes (January 17, 1962 – March 16, 2009) was a British and American fisheries biologist known as an expert in stream salmonid ecology.Nicholas Ferrar Nicholas Ferrar (22 February 1592 – 4 December 1637) was an English scholar, courtier and businessman, who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He lost much of his fortune in the Virginia Company and retreated with his extended fami ...

(1592–1637). She moved to

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 1988, and later settled in

Wooroloo Wooroloo is a town on the outer fringe of the Perth metropolitan region, located off Great Eastern Highway in the eastern part of the Shire of Mundaring. At the 2021 Australian census, 2021 census, Wooroloo had a population of 2,613. History T ...

, a small hamlet north of Perth, in 1991, where the Australian landscape became the basis of much of her painting. She obtained dual Australian citizenship in 1992. Hughes was married to farmworker Desmond Dawe from 1979 to 1982. Her second husband was an estate agent, Clive Anderson. Her third marriage, in 1996, was to Hungarian artist Laszlo Lukacs; they divorced in 2010 after a year-long separation. She has no children. Hughes rescues, keeps, and paints owls. Hughes currently lives near

Abermule Abermule () is a village lying on the River Severn 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Newtown, Powys, Newtown in Powys, mid Wales. The A483 road, A483 Swansea to Chester trunk road, the Cambrian Line railway, connecting Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, ...

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Exhibitions

*1989: Group exhibition at the Chris Beetles Gallery, St James's, London. *1991: Group exhibition with the Milne and Moller Gallery at Art Expo 1991, London. *1992: Group exhibition with the Milne and Moller Gallery at Art Expo 1992, London. *1993: Solo exhibition at the Anna Mei Chadwick Gallery, Fulham, London; Joint exhibition at the Delaney Gallery, Perth, Western Australia; and Group exhibition at Perth Galleries, Perth, Western Australia. *1994: Group exhibition at the Gomboc Gallery, Middle Swan, Western Australia. *1995: Solo exhibition at the Provenance Gallery, Sydney, Australia; and Solo exhibition at the Anna Mei Chadwick Gallery, London. *1996: Joint exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs sponsored by

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

, London. *1997: Joint exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs at the Cork St Gallery, London. *1998: Joint exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs sponsored by the

Royal Commonwealth Society The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is a non-governmental organisation with a mission to promote the value of the Commonwealth and the values upon which it is based. The Society upholds the values of the Commonwealth Charter, promoting co ...

, London. *1999: Joint studio exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs, London. *2001: Joint studio exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs, London. *2002: Joint studio exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs, London. *2003: Joint exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs at the Soan Gallery, London. *2008: Joint exhibition with Laszlo Lukacs in

, Wales. *2015: Solo exhibition at the October Gallery, London. *2017: Solo exhibition at Chichester Cathedral.

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. *2018: Solo exhibition at the Chris Beetles Gallery, London.

Bibliography

;Children's books *1986: ''Getting Rid of Edna'' – published in the UK by Heinemann. Published as ''Getting Rid of Aunt Edna'' in the US by Harper and Row. Published in paperback in the UK by Pan Books in 1988. *1989: ''The Meal a Mile Long'' – author-illustrated picture book for young children. Published by Simon and Schuster in the US, Australia and the UK. *1990: ''Waldorf and the Sleeping Granny'' – published by Simon and Schuster in the UK. *1992: ''The Thing in the Sink'' – published by Simon and Schuster in the UK. Reissued in 2003 by Hodder Children's Books. *1994: ''Rent-a-friend'' – published by Simon and Schuster in the UK. *1997: ''The Tall Story'' – published by Macdonald Young Books in the UK. Re-issued by Hodder Children's Books in 2003. *2001: ''Three Scary Stories'' – published by HarperCollins in the UK. ;Poetry collections *1998: ''Wooroloo'' – published in the US by Harper Flamingo. Published in 1999 in Australia by Fremantle Arts Centre Press and in the UK by

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

. Wooroloo received a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. *2001: ''Stonepicker'' – published by

in the UK and Fremantle Press in Australia. *2002: ''Waxworks'' – published by

in the UK, HarperCollins in the US and Fremantle Press in Australia in 2003. *2006: ''Forty-Five'' – published by HarperCollins in the U.S. *2006: ''The Book of Mirrors'' – published by

in the UK. *2009: ''Stonepicker and The Book of Mirrors'' – published by HarperCollins in the U.S. *2015: ''Alternative Values: poems & paintings'' – published by

in the UK. *2018: ''Out of the Ashes'' – published by

in the UK. Hughes's poems have also been published in ''The New Yorker'', ''Tatler'', ''The Spectator'', ''Thumbscrew'', ''The Paris Review'', ''First Pressings'', ''The London Magazine'', ''The Times'', ''The Guardian'', and ''The Daily Telegraph'' among others. ;Memoirs *2023: ''George: A Magpie Memoir'' – with illustrations by Frieda Hughes, published by

Profile Books Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current events, current affairs, travel and popular science. Profile Books is distribu ...

in the UK.

References

External links

Official website of Frieda HughesStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Letters to Frieda Hughes, 1971-1997
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Frieda 1960 births English women painters English people of American descent English people of Austrian descent English people of German descent Living people People educated at Bedales School Artists from Perth, Western Australia Writers from Perth, Western Australia Sylvia Plath English women poets 20th-century English poets 21st-century British poets 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters English children's writers British women children's writers English emigrants to Australia Australian people of American descent Australian people of German descent Australian women children's writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from London Painters from London Alumni of Central Saint Martins 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Plath-Hughes family