Julia Copus

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 1969) is a British

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, biographer and children's writer. Copus was born in London and grew up with three brothers, two of whom went on to become musicians. She attended The Mountbatten School, a comprehensive in

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated northwest of Southampton, southwest of Winchester and southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over northeast of ...

, and Peter Symonds Sixth Form College in Winchester. She went on to study Latin at St Mary's College,

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

. Copus' books of

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 ...

include ''The Shuttered Eye'' (Bloodaxe, 1995), which won her an

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 ...

and 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 First Collection, the pamphlet ''Walking in the Shadows'' (1994), which won the Poetry Business competition, ''In Defence of Adultery'' (Bloodaxe, 2003), ''The World's Two Smallest Humans'' (Faber, 2012), shortlisted for both the

Costa Book Award for Poetry The Costa Book Award for Poetry, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2006), was an annual literary award for poetry collections, part of the Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising Eng ...

and the T. S. Eliot Prize, and ''Girlhood'' (Faber 2019), winner of the inaugura
Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry
She is known for establishing a new form in English poetry, which she has called the ''specular form'', in which the second half of the poem mirrors the first, using the same lines but in reverse order and differently punctuated.The Poetry Society (Julia Copus, Apna Ghar Age Concern)
/ref> ''Eenie Meenie Macka Racka'' (an original 45-minute play for radio) was first 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 September, 2003, having been commissioned after Copus won the BBC's Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for Best New Radio Playwright in 2002. In the same year, she won First Prize in the National Poetry Competition with ''Breaking the Rule''. Copus was 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 ...

Fellow at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and the following year was made an RLF Advisory Fellow and awarded an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Exeter. In 2010, she won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem for ''An Easy Passage'', and in 2020 her collection ''Girlhood'' was awarded the inaugura
Derek Walcott Prize
for best collection by a non-US citizen. She has served on the judging panel for a number of literary prizes, including the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Iri ...

, the

Ted Hughes Award The Ted Hughes Award was an annual literary prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It was awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year. It was a project which ran alongside Carol Ann Duffy's tenure as Poet ...

, the Costa Book Award, the UK's

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 ...

, the Encore Award for best second novel, the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets, the T. S. Eliot Prize for poetry and th
Tower Poetry Competition
for 16-18 year olds, run by Christ Church, Oxford. Copus has also written four picture books: ''Hog in the Fog'', ''The Hog, The Shrew and the Hullabaloo ''(Faber 2015), T''he Shrew that Flew'' (Faber 2016) and ''My Bed is an Air Balloon'' (Faber 2018)''.''

Personal life

She lives in

Blackheath, London Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. Historically within the county of Kent, it is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, G ...

, with her husband, Andrew Stevenson.

Publications

Poetry collections

* ''The Shuttered Eye'', Bloodaxe Books 1995. * ''In Defence of Adultery'', Bloodaxe Books 2003. * ''The World's Two Smallest Humans'', Faber 2012. * ''Girlhood'', Faber 2019.

For children

''The Landlord's Cat'', Out of the Ark Music 2010
(with Antony Copus)
''A Harry & Lil story: Hog in the Fog'', Faber 2014

''A Harry & Lil story: The Hog, the Shrew and the Hullabaloo'', Faber 2015

''A Harry & Lil story: The Shrew that Flew'', Faber 2016''My Bed is an Air Balloon'', Faber 2018

As editor

*
Life Support: 100 Poems to Reach for on Dark Nights
' (Head of Zeus 2019) *
Charlotte Mew: Selected Poems and Prose
' (Faber 2019)

Non-fiction

*
This Rare Spirit: A Life of Charlotte Mew
', Faber 2021
''Brilliant Writing Tips for Students'', Palgrave Macmillan 2009

For radio

* ''Eenie Meenie Macka Racka'', afternoon play, BBC Radio 4, September 2003 * ''The Enormous Radio'' (based on the short story by John Cheever), afternoon play, BBC Radio 4, July 2008 * ''Ghost Lines'', a sequence of poems for radio, BBC Radio 3, December 2011 *
The Heart of Hidden Things
', on the life and work of

Charlotte Mew Charlotte Mary Mew (15 November 1869 – 24 March 1928) was an English poet whose work spanned the eras of Victorian poetry and Modernism. Early life and education Mew was born in Bloomsbury, London, daughter of the architect Frederick Mew ( ...

, BBC Radio 4, November 2019

Audio

''Julia Copus Reading from Her Poems'', (CD) The Poetry Archive 2010

Awards and Fellowships

* 199
Eric Gregory Award
(Society of Authors) * 1997 ''The Shuttered Eye'' shortlisted for

Forward Poetry 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 First Collection * 2002

, First Prize
'Breaking the Rule'
* 2002 BBC Alfred Bradley Award for Best New Radio Playwright, ''Eenie Meenie Macka Racka'' * 2005 Arts Council Writers' Award * 2005–2007

Fellow, University of Exeter * 2008 Honorary Fellowship, University of Exeter * 2010

(Best Single Poem)
'An Easy Passage'
* 2011 ''Ghost Lines'' shortlisted fo
Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry
* 201
Costa Book Awards
(poetry category), shortlist, ''The World's Two Smallest Humans'' * 2012 T. S. Eliot Prize, shortlist, ''The World's Two Smallest Humans'' * 201
Authors' Foundation Grant
(Society of Authors) * 2018 Inducted as 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 ...

* 202
Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry
for ''Girlhood'' * 2023–2024

Fellow, V&A Museum and Science Museum Group * 2024

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

References

External links

Julia Copus author page on the Faber & Faber websiteJulia Copus reading her poems on The Poetry Archive Julia Copus biography page on the Royal Literary Fund website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copus, Julia Living people 1969 births 21st-century British poets 21st-century English poets 21st-century English writers 21st-century English women writers Alumni of St Mary's College, Durham English women dramatists and playwrights English women poets People educated at Peter Symonds College Writers from Hampshire Writers from the London Borough of Lambeth Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature