music.wikisort.org - Poet

Karen McCarthy Woolf (born 1966)[1][2] is a poet of English and Jamaican parentage.[3]

Karen McCarthy Woolf
Born	1966 (age 55–56) London, England
Occupation	Poet
Website	www.mccarthywoolf.net

Background

Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in London to English and Jamaican parents.[1] Her father emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1957 as a part of the Windrush generation, and her experience and identity as a mixed-race woman has informed her poetry.[2]

The poem "Outside" from her Seasonal Disturbances was chosen by Carol Rumens as "Poem of the Week" in The Guardian in December 2017.[4]

In 2019, McCarthy Woolf was appointed Poet in Residence at University of California, Los Angeles.[5] She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[1][6]

McCarthy Woolf won second place in the 2020 Laurel Prize for her collection Seasonal Disturbances.[7]

In 2021 she was one of the judges of the 2020 National Poetry Competition.[8][9]

McCarthy Woolf was mentored on The Complete Works poets of colour mentoring scheme initiated by Bernardine Evaristo to redress representational invisibility. The scheme (2007–2017), funded by Arts Council England, was directed by Dr Natalie Teitler, during which time thirty poets were mentored.[10]

Selected publications

Authored

• The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers (2006, Spread The Word, ISBN 9780954008321)
• An Aviary of Small Birds (2014, Carcanet Press, ISBN 9781906188146)
• Seasonal Disturbances (2017, Carcanet, ISBN 9781784103361)

Edited

• Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry (1998, The Women's Press, ISBN 0704346079)
• Ten: The New Wave (2014, Bloodaxe Books, ISBN 9781780371108)
• Ten: Poets of the New Generation (2017, Bloodaxe, ISBN 9781780373829)
• Unwritten : Caribbean Poems after the First World War (2018, Nine Arches Press, ISBN 9781911027294)

References

External links

• Official website
• "Karen McCarthy Woolf In conversation with Forward Arts Foundation"
• Interview with Karen McCarthy Woolf by The Poetry Extension

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