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Kate Clanchy MBE (born 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a British poet, freelance writer and teacher.

Kate Clanchy MBE
Born	1965 (age 56–57) Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Occupation	poet, teacher, writer
Known for	Slattern, Sammarkand, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me
Parent(s)	Michael Clanchy Joan Clanchy
Awards	Eric Gregory Award Forward Poetry Prize Scottish First Book of the Year Orwell Prize for Political Writing

Early life

She was born in 1965 in Glasgow to medieval historian Michael Clanchy and teacher Joan Clanchy (née Milne).[1][2] She was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh and at the University of Oxford, where she studied English.[3]

Career

She lived in London's East End for several years, before moving to Oxfordshire where she now works as a teacher, journalist and freelance writer.

Her poetry and seven radio plays have been broadcast by BBC Radio. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper; her work appeared in The Scotsman, the New Statesman and Poetry Review. She also writes for radio and broadcasts on the BBC's World Service, Radio 3 and Radio 4.[4] She is a Creative Writing Fellow of Oxford Brookes University and teaches Creative Writing at the Arvon Foundation. She is currently one of the writers-in-residence at the charity First Story. Her poetry has been included in A Book of Scottish Verse (2002) [5] and The Edinburgh book of twentieth-century Scottish poetry (2006).[6] Clanchy was appointed an MBE in 2018.[7]

Book controversy

In August 2021, Clanchy announced that she would rewrite her book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me after passages from it were criticised online for their depictions of ethnic minority, autistic and working class children, including use of terms described by some as "dehumanising", "racist", "anti-Black", and "antisemitic".[8] Detractors included fellow writers Dara McAnulty, Monisha Rajesh, Sunny Singh and Chimene Suleyman. Clanchy was defended by the writers Amanda Craig and Philip Pullman.[9]

Clanchy had initially claimed, incorrectly, that the extracts concerned were "all made up", then argued that the quotes, which she described as "racist",[8][10] had been taken out of context.[7] Clanchy later issued a statement apologising for "overreacting" to the critiques and stating that she "got many things wrong, and welcome[d] the chance to write better, more lovingly".[7][8] Later, however, she seemed to retract her agreement to rewrite, in an article she wrote for Unherd accusing the publisher's sensitivity readers of having "sullied" her memoir. url=https://unherd.com/2022/02/how-sensitivity-readers-corrupted-literature/

Prizes and awards

• 1994 Eric Gregory Award
• 1997 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) for Slattern[11]
• 1996 London Arts Board New Writer Award
• 1996 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award for Slattern
• 1996 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for Slattern
• 1997 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist) for Slattern
• 1997 Somerset Maugham Award for Slattern
• 1999 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) (shortlist) for Samarkand
• 1999 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for Samarkand
• 2004 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) (shortlist) for Newborn
• 2009 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for What Is She Doing Here?: A Refugee's Story[12]
• 2009 Writers' Guild Award for Best Book (What is She Doing Here)
• 2009 BBC National Short Story Award for The Not-Dead and The Saved
• 2013 Costa Book Awards (First Novel), shortlisted for Meeting the English[13]
• 2018 Cholmondeley Award
• 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Writing for Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me[14]

Bibliography

• Slattern. Picador. 2001. ISBN 978-0-330-48929-4. 1st edition Chatto & Windus, 1995
• Samarkand. Picador. 1999. ISBN 978-0-330-37194-0.
• All The Poems You Need To Say Hello. Picador. 2004. ISBN 978-0-330-43384-6. (editor)
• Newborn. Macmillan UK. 2006. ISBN 978-0-330-41931-4. 1st edition Picador, 2004
• Our Cat Henry Comes to the Swings. illustrated Jemima Bird. Oxford University Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-272557-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• What Is She Doing Here?: A Refugee's Story. Picador. 2008. ISBN 978-0-330-44382-1.
• Meeting the English. Picador. 2013. ISBN 978-0-330-53527-4.
• Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. Picador. 2019. ISBN 978-1-5098-4029-8.
• How to Grow Your Own Poem. Picador. 2020. ISBN 978-1-5290-2469-2.

References

External links

• "Kate Clanchy", British Council
• "‘Cool in my forties’: Kate Clanchy in conversation with Vicki Bertram", Horizon Review, Volume 2
• "The Girl from Nowhere: John Stammers interviews Kate Clanchy". Magma No 9 - Spring 1997
• "Poet Kate Clanchy wins BBC National Short Story award". Guardian article. 7 December 2009
• A review to 'La testa di Shakila' by Andrea Galgano. Città del Monte italian article about Kate Clanchy. 2 September 2019

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