Karen McCarthy Woolf (born 1966) is a poet of English and Jamaican parentage.

Early life and education

Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to English and Jamaican parents. Her father emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1957 as a part of the

Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. ...

, and her experience and identity as a mixed-race woman has informed her poetry. She has a PhD (2018) from

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

: her thesis title was ''At the centre of the edge : contemporary ecological poetry and the sacred hybrid'', and it focused on the work of

Louise Glück Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; April 22, 1943 – October 13, 2023) was an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existe ...

Kei Miller Kei Miller (born 24 October 1978) is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing.Joy Harjo Joy Harjo ( ; born May 9, 1951) is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureat ...

Writing career

McCarthy Woolf was mentored on The Complete Works poets of colour mentoring scheme initiated by

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo (born 28 May 1959) is an English author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first Black woman to win ...

to redress representational invisibility. McCarthy Woolf's 2014 book ''An Aviary of Small Birds'' was shortlisted for the 2015 Best First Collection award of 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 the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and chosen as an ''Observer'' poetry book of the month. The poem "Outside" from her ''Seasonal Disturbances'' was chosen by

Carol Rumens Carol Rumens FRSL (born 10 December 1944) is a British poet. Life Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before compl ...

as "Poem of the Week" in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in December 2017. In 2019, McCarthy Woolf was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar and appointed as poet-in-residence at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

. McCarthy Woolf won second place in the 2020

Laurel Prize The is an award presented annually in Japan since 1961 by the Japan Railfan Club. It is awarded for railway vehicles that entered service in the previous year and voted by the selection committee as having the most outstanding functional and des ...

for her collection ''Seasonal Disturbances''. In 2021 she was one of the judges of the 2020

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 ...

. McCarthy Woolf teaches on the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. 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 2022. McCarthy Woolf was nominated for the 2024

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 ...

for Poetry, alongside

Raymond Antrobus Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019, he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.Carl Phillips Carl Phillips (born 23 July 1959) is an American writer and poet. He is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2023, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his '' Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.'' ...

Gboyega Odubanjo Gboyega Odubanjo (30 January 1996 – August 2023) was a British-Nigerian poet from South London, England. Early life and education Gboyega Odubanjo was born on 30 January 1996, in London, England, where he also grew up. Odubanjo attended the ...

Rachel Mann Rachel Mann (born 1970) is a British Anglican priest, poet and feminist theologian. She is a trans woman who writes, speaks and broadcasts on a wide range of topics including gender, sexuality and religion. She has served as Archdeacon of Bolto ...

and others.

Selected publications

Authored

*''The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers'' (2006, Spread The Word, ) *''An Aviary of Small Birds'' (2014,

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom. Originally a student magazine devised by undergraduates collaborating between Oxford and Cambridge, it was refounded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was nam ...

, ) *''Seasonal Disturbances'' (2017, Carcanet, ) *''Top Doll'' (2024, Dialogue Books, )

Edited

*''Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry'' (1998,

The Women's Press The Women's Press was a feminist publishing company established in London in 1977. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, The Women's Press was a highly visible presence, publishing feminist literature. Founding In 1977, Stephanie Dowrick cofo ...

, ) *''Ten: The New Wave'' (2014,

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 ...

, ) *''Ten: Poets of the New Generation'' (2017, Bloodaxe Books, ) *''Unwritten : Caribbean Poems after the First World War '' (2018, Nine Arches Press, )

References

External links

*
"Karen McCarthy Woolf In conversation with Forward Arts Foundation"Interview with Karen McCarthy Woolf
by ''The Poetry Extension'' {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy Woolf, Karen 1966 births 21st-century English poets 21st-century English women writers Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London Black British women writers Black British writers English people of Jamaican descent English women poets Living people Women anthologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature