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

Early life and education

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]

She has a PhD (2018) from Royal Holloway, University of London: her thesis title was At the centre of the edge : contemporary ecological poetry and the sacred hybrid, and it focussed on the work of Louise Glück, Kei Miller and Joy Harjo ^{[4] [5]}

Writing career

McCarthy Woolf was mentored on The Complete Works poets of colour mentoring scheme initiated by Bernardine Evaristo to redress representational invisibility. ^[6]

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 ^[7] and the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, ^[8] and chosen as an Observer poetry book of the month. ^[9]

The poem "Outside" from her Seasonal Disturbances was chosen by Carol Rumens as "Poem of the Week" in The Guardian in December 2017. ^[10]

In 2019, McCarthy Woolf was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar and appointed as poet-in-residence at University of California, Los Angeles. ^[11] She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby. ^{[1] [12]}

McCarthy Woolf won second place in the 2020 Laurel Prize for her collection Seasonal Disturbances. ^[13]

In 2021 she was one of the judges of the 2020 National Poetry Competition. ^{[14] [15]}

McCarthy Woolf teaches on the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. ^[16]

She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022. ^[17]

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)
• Top Doll (2024, Dialogue Books, ISBN  9780349703459)

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