Sheenagh Pugh (born 20 December 1950) is a British poet, novelist and translator who writes in English. Her book, ''Stonelight'' (1999) won the

Wales Book of the Year The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently a ...

award. Pugh was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. She was a creative writer educator at the

University of Glamorgan , image_name = University of Glamorgan arms.png , image_size = 220px , caption = University of Glamorgan coat of arms , motto = Success Through Endeavour , established = , closed = , administrative_staff = , chancellor = John Morris ...

until her retirement. She has written several poetry collections, and two novels. She has also written ''The Democratic Genre: fan fiction in a literary context'' (2005), a literary study of fan fiction.

Life

Pugh was born in

. She studied languages at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

. She now lives in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

but lived for many years in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

and taught creative writing at the

until retiring in 2008. Her collection of poetry, ''Stonelight'' (1999) won the

award in 2000. She has twice won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition. Her collection of poetry ''The Beautiful Lie'' (Seren, 2002) was shortlisted for the

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

and the collection ''The Movement of Bodies'' (Seren, 2005) was selected as a Poetry Book Society recommendation and also shortlisted for the

T S Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

. Pugh's interest in northern landscapes is well-known and a strong feature of her work. One of her novels, ''Kirstie's Witnesses'', is set in Shetland and several poems in ''Long-Haul Travellers'' are set in Norway. Her poem "Sometimes" (''Selected Poems'', 1990) appeared in ''Poems on the Underground'' and is among her best-known works, though Pugh herself states on her website that she "long ago got sick of it"The Dreaded Sometimes: Sheenagh Pugh's website
(accessed 28 June 2007) and no longer allows it to be anthologised or used in examination questions.

Politically correct ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

versions of this poem using

inclusive language Inclusive language avoids expressions that are considered to express or imply ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people and sometimes animals as well. Use of inclusive language ...

have been published, ruining the

scansion Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are ...

and raising Pugh's ire. Pugh has also published a study of fan fiction, ''The Democratic Genre: fan fiction in a literary context'' (Seren, 2005), which is one of the first publications to treat fan fiction as a

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includ ...

rather than a

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

phenomenon. Fandom is also the subject of her 'Fanfic' sequence, in the collection ''The Beautiful Lie'', which includes a poem about

Mary Sue A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, usually a young woman, who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains, gifted with unique talents or powers, liked or respected by most other characters, unrealistically free ...

s. Pugh's collection ''Long-Haul Travellers'' was published by Seren in Autumn 2008. It features several poems set in Norway and a sequence about the Dutch privateer turned Barbary pirate Murat Reis. ''Long-Haul Travellers'' was shortlisted for the

Roland Mathias Prize Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

and longlisted for the

prize. Pugh has since published ''Short Days, Long Shadows'' in 2014 and ''Afternoons Go Nowhere'', 2019, both from Seren.

Works

Poetry

*''Crowded by Shadows'' (1977) *''What a Place to Grow Flowers'' (1979) *''Earth Studies and Other Voyages'' (1982) *''Beware Falling Tortoises'' (1987) *''Sing for the Taxman'' (1993) *''Id's Hospit'' (1997) *''Stonelight'' (1999) *''The Beautiful Lie'' (2002) *''The Movement of Bodies'' (2005) *''Long-Haul Travellers'' (2008) *''Later Selected Poems'' (2009) *''Short Days, Long Shadows'' (2014) *''Afternoons Go Nowhere'' (2019)

Poetry anthologies

*''Selected Poems'' (1990) *''What If This Road and Other Poems'' (2003)

Novels

*''Kirstie's Witnesses'' (1998) *''Folk Music'' (1999)

Translation

*''Prisoners of Transience'' (1985)

Nonfiction

*''The Democratic Genre'' (2005) All published by Seren except ''Kirstie's Witnesses'', published by the Shetland Publishing Company, and ''What If This Road and Other Poems'', published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch.

References

External links

Sheenagh Pugh's websiteSheenagh Pugh's blogBritish Council - Arts: Sheenagh Pugh
��republished in ''The Democratic Genre'' * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160303171203/http://www.academi.org/news/i/134026/ Academi {{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, Sheenagh 1950 births 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 21st-century English poets 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers English women novelists Anglo-Welsh women poets English women poets Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands Academics of the University of Glamorgan Living people Alumni of the University of Bristol