Polly Clark (born 1968) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-born British writer and poet. She is the author of ''Larchfield'' (2017), which fictionalised a youthful period in the life of poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

, and ''Tiger'' (2019) about a last dynasty of wild

Siberian tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies ''Panthera tigris tigris'' native to Northeast China, the Russian Far East, and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korea, Korean Peninsula, but currently ...

s. She has published four critically acclaimed volumes of poetry. She lives in

Helensburgh Helensburgh ( ; ) is a town on the north side of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, situated at the mouth of the Gareloch. Historically in Dunbartonshire, it became part of Argyll and Bute following local government reorganisation in 1996. Histo ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Early life and education

Clark was born in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and came to the UK as a child, growing up in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. She graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy from the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

and completed a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA) in English literature at

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (OBU; formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Th ...

Career

Between 2007 and 2017 she produced the Literature Programme at Cove Park, Scotland's International Artist Residency Centre, near Helensburgh. She was Poet in Residence for the ''

Southern Daily Echo The ''Southern Daily Echo'', more commonly known as the ''Daily Echo'' or simply ''The Echo'', is a regional tabloid newspaper based in Southampton, covering the county of Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The newspaper is owned by Newsquest, on ...

''. and chaired and presented the author

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story author, and writer of a series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe. Ford's first collection of short stories, ''Rock Springs (short stories), Rock Springs ...

on an

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

funded tour of theatres in south east England in 2004. She has held a variety of other jobs to support her writing, including a period as a teacher of English in Hungary, working in publishing at Oxford University Press, and as a zookeeper at

Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo (), formerly the Scottish National Zoological Park, is an non-profit zoological park in the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The zoo is positioned on the south-facing slopes of Corstorphine Hill, giving extensive vie ...

. Since winning the

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 ...

for young poets in 1997, she has published three full collections of poetry and one pamphlet. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Michael Marks Award. Her first novel, ''Larchfield'', was published in March 2017 and is based on the little known period spent by

as a teacher at the

Larchfield Academy Lomond School is a private, co-educational, day and boarding school in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lomond School is, currently, the only day and boarding school on the west coast of Scotland. It was formed from a merger in 1977 betwe ...

, now amalgamated into

Lomond School Lomond School is a private, co-educational, day and boarding school in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lomond School is, currently, the only day and boarding school on the west coast of Scotland. It was formed from a merger in 1977 betwe ...

, in

, Scotland (where he wrote ''

The Orators ''The Orators: An English Study'' is a long poem in prose and verse written by W. H. Auden, first published in 1932. It is regarded as a major contribution to modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual a ...

''). ''Larchfield'' won the 2015 Mslexia Women's Novel Competition (under its draft title, ''When Auden Met Dora''). It received praise from Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford and Louis de Bernieres. David Robinson in The National and ''Books from Scotland'' calls it "layered, clever, captivating". John Boyne 'Magical and transcendent . . . I suspect that few debuts in 2017 will match the elegance of Larchfield. This is a beautiful novel: passionate, lyrical and surprising. I will remember Larchfield for a long time.'. Stuart Kelly in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' was critical, saying "it is not a work for which I would recommend a reader parting with money". In 2017, Clark contributed to a BBC2 documentary on Auden's life, directed by BAFTA winning Adam Low and wrote a piece for the ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' on childbirth. With the poet

Glyn Maxwell Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist, and lecturer. Early life Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'' ...

and the writer and cultural commentator

Matthew Sweet Sidney Matthew Sweet (born October 6, 1964) is an American alternative rock/power pop singer-songwriter and musician who was part of the burgeoning music scene in Athens, Georgia, during the 1980s before gaining commercial success in the 1990 ...

she discussed W.H. Auden's Age of Anxiety 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 ...

for the 2018

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

Production of

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

's symphonic interpretation of the poet's work: Age of Anxiety. Writing in the ''Guardian'', Liz Jensen placed Clark's 'unsettling and immersive' second novel ''Tiger'' in a vanguard of books along with

Laline Paull Laline Paull FRSL is a British novelist. Her debut novel, '' The Bees'', was nominated for the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Her 2017 cli-fi novel is titled ''The Ice''. Her 2022 novel ''Pod'' was nominated for the 2023 Women's Prize ...

's ''The Bees'' and

Richard Powers Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.The Overstory ''The Overstory'' is a novel by American author Richard Powers, published in 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. The book follows nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. Thr ...

'' which approach non-human life in new ways. Allan Massie in ''The Scotsman'' described it as 'magnificent and terrifying', adding that the novel 'will doubtless sell very well – and deservedly so' To research the novel Clark undertook a tiger tracking expedition to the remote Russian

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

. ''Tiger'' was shortlisted in 2019 Saltire Book of the Year Awards.

Works

Poetry collections

*''Kiss'' (

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 ...

2000;

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. ...

Recommendation) *''Take Me With You'' (Bloodaxe Books 2005; Poetry Book Society Choice; shortlisted for 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 ...

) *''Farewell My Lovely'' (Bloodaxe Books 2009) *''A Handbook for the Afterlife'' A Pamphlet (Templar 2015; shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards)

Novels

*''Larchfield'' (Quercus 2017; winner of the MsLexia Women's Novel Competition) *''Tiger'' (Quercus 2019; shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Novel of the Year 2019)

External links

# Polly Clark reads from her poems for th
Poetry Archive
#Polly Clark'
website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Polly 1968 births Alumni of Oxford Brookes University Alumni of the University of Liverpool British women writers Canadian emigrants to England English-language poets Living people Writers from Cumbria Writers from Toronto