Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017.[1][2] In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding Daljit Nagra.[3] On 1 October 2019, she took up the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry.[4]

Biography

Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.[5][6] Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford. She then trained as a gardener and worked at such sites as Chelsea Physic Garden, Wisley and Clovelly Court Gardens.[7] She currently lives on the Dartington Estate in Devon with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald (also a trained classicist), and her three children. Alice Oswald is the sister of actor Will Keen and writer Laura Beatty and the aunt of Keen's daughter Dafne.[8][9]

Works

In 1994, she was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. Her first collection of poetry, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile (1996), was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) in 1996,[10] as well as the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1997.

Her second collection, Dart (2002), combined verse and prose, and tells the story of the River Dart in Devon from a variety of perspectives. Jeanette Winterson called it a " … moving, changing poem, as fast-flowing as the river and as deep … a celebration of difference … ".[11] Dart won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002.

In 2004, Oswald was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets. Her collection Woods etc., published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection).

In 2009 she published both A sleepwalk on the Severn and Weeds and Wildflowers, which won the inaugural Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

In October 2011, Oswald published her 6th collection, Memorial. Subtitled "An Excavation of the Iliad",[12] Memorial is based on the Iliad attributed to Homer, but departs from the narrative form of the Iliad to focus on, and so commemorate, the individual named characters whose deaths are mentioned in that poem.[13][14][15] Later in October 2011, Memorial was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize,[16] but in December 2011, Oswald withdrew the book from the shortlist,[17][18] citing concerns about the ethics of the prize's sponsors.[19] In 2013, Memorial won the Poetry Society’s Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for poetry in translation.[20]

Oswald was a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016.[21] In 2017, she won the Griffin Poetry Prize for her seventh collection of poems, Falling Awake.[2]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • 1996: The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-282513-5
  • 2002: Dart, Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-21410-X
  • 2005: Woods etc. Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-21852-0
  • 2009: Weeds and Wild Flowers, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-23749-4
  • 2009: A sleepwalk on the Severn, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-24756-1
  • 2011: Memorial, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-27416-1
  • 2016: Falling Awake, Jonathan Cape
  • 2019: Nobody, Jonathan Cape
  • 2020: A Short Story of Falling - Metal Engravings by Maribel Mas. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
Anthologies (edited)
  • 2002: Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge (co-edited with Peter Oswald and Robert Woof), Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust, ISBN 1-870787-84-6
  • 2005: The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet (editor), Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-21854-7
List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Evening poem 2016 Oswald, Alice (25 July 2016). "Evening poem". The New Yorker. 92 (22): 38.

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ↑ Herbert, Interview by Susannah (2 October 2012). "Alice Oswald, poet – portrait of the artist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Jordan Abel wins $65K Griffin Poetry Prize for Injun". Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "Alice Oswald announced as BBC Radio 4's new Poet-in-Residence". BBC Media Centre. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "Alice Oswald elected as new Oxford Professor of Poetry". University of Oxford. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  5. ↑ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, Burke's Peerage, Ltd, 2003, p. 1987
  6. ↑ Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 148th edition, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2011, p. 799
  7. ↑ Marriage, Alwyn (March–April 2005). "Footbridge of a Glance" (PDF). Resurgence. Bideford, Devon: The Resurgence Trust [article republished on the author's site]. 229: 46–47. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  8. ↑ "Going with the flow". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "Mary Keen interview: 'people have accused me of being too traditional'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Forward Arts Foundation Alumni". Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  11. ↑ Winterson, Jeanette (27 July 2002). "Alice Oswald". The Times. London: Times Newspapers Limited [article republished on the author's site]. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  12. ↑ Oswald, Alice (2011). Memorial: An Excavation of the Iliad. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571274161. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012.
  13. ↑ Holland, Tom (17 October 2011). "The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller / Memorial by Alice Oswald. Surfing the rip tide of all things Homeric". The New Statesman. London: New Statesman. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  14. ↑ Kellaway, Kate (2 October 2011). "Memorial by Alice Oswald – review". The Observer. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  15. ↑ Higgins, Charlotte (28 October 2011). "The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and more – review". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  16. ↑ Flood, Alison (20 October 2011). "TS Eliot prize 2011 shortlist revealed". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  17. 1 2 Waters, Florence (6 December 2011). "Poet withdraws from TS Eliot prize over sponsorship". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  18. 1 2 Flood, Alison (6 December 2011). "Alice Oswald withdraws from TS Eliot prize in protest at sponsor Aurum". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  19. 1 2 Oswald, Alice (12 December 2011). "Why I pulled out of the TS Eliot poetry prize". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  20. 1 2 "2013 Popescu Prize". The Poetry Society. Archived from the original on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  21. ↑ "Judges for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Announced". 19 August 2015. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  22. ↑ Liz Bury (25 September 2013). "Alice Oswald wins Warwick prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  23. ↑ Tasja Dorkofikis (5 December 2013). "Poetry in translation – The Popescu Prize 2013". English PEN. Archived from the original on 17 February 2014. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  24. ↑ "Costa Book of the Year: Sebastian Barry celebrates second win". BBC News. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
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