Alice Oswald Popular Books
Alice Oswald Biography & Facts
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. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding Daljit Nagra. From 1 October 2019 until 30 September 2023, she was the Oxford Professor of Poetry. Biography Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe. 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. As of 2016, she was living near Totnes, 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. 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, 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 … ". 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", 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. Later in October 2011, Memorial was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, but in December 2011, Oswald withdrew the book from the shortlist, citing concerns about the ethics of the prize's sponsors. In 2013, Memorial won the Poetry Society’s Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for poetry in translation. Oswald was a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016. In 2017, she won the Griffin Poetry Prize for her seventh collection of poems, Falling Awake. 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 Awards and recognition 1994: Eric Gregory Award 1996: Arts Foundation Award for Poetry 1996: winner of the Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection), The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile 1997: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize, for The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile 2002: T. S. Eliot Prize for Dart 2005: shortlisted for Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), for Woods etc. 2005: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize for Woods etc. 2007: Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem) for 'Dunt' 2009: Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for Weeds and Wild Flowers 2011: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize, for Memorial, subsequently withdrawn due to Oswald's ethical concerns. 2013: Warwick Prize for Writing, winner for Memorial 2013: Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry, winner for Memorial 2016: Costa Award for Poetry for Falling Awake 2017: Griffin Poetry Prize for Falling Awake References External links Contemporarywriters.com Alice Oswald – Biography and Analysis of her Works Poetry Archive profile with poems written and audio Interview with Oswald. Magama magazine, issue 51 2008. "Presiding Spirits". London Review of Books Review of Woods etc by Aingeal Clare. Guardian article 30 March 2010: Alice Oswald wins inaugural Ted Hughes award. Accessed 2010-03-31 'Tithonus 46 minutes in the life of the dawn' 'Alice Oswald'. Discover the Alice Oswald popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alice Oswald books.
Best Seller Alice Oswald Books of 2024
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We Are All From Somewhere Else
Ruth PadelFirst published as The Mara Crossing, now with new and updated material'A prodigy, a book of wonders. Wonder, pity and terror, the searing section of voices in transit coercing co...
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The Killer Inside
Will CarverA FREE digitalonly short story from the acclaimed author of Girl 4. Included is an exclusive extract of Will Carver's new book Dead Set (out 21st November 2013).I am about to be pu...
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By Any Other Name
Simon MorleyA beautifully illustrated history of the Queen of Flowers and her enduring power in our gardens, art, religion and imagination.‘Fascinating... I’ll never look at a rose in quite th...
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The Selected Poems of Cavafy
C. P. Cavafy & Avi SharonC. P. Cavafy is one of the most singular and poignant voices of twentiethcentury European poetry, conjuring a magical interior world through lyrical evocations of remembered passio...
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Slip
Amelia LoulliA daring and beautifully crafted debut collection about the experience of abortion – from an emerging poet and winner of the Northern Writers’ Award'Amelia Loulli stakes out fresh ...
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Selected Poems
Osip MandelshtamJames Greene's acclaimed translations of the poetry of Osip Mandelshtam, now in an extensively revised and augmented edition.
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Poems of John Milton
John MiltonJohn Milton was a master of almost every type of verse, from the classical to the religious and from the lyrical to the epic. This is a new selection of his poems, edited and intro...
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The Girls Inside
NJ MackayA gripping, compelling psychological thriller about a cult, a fire, and the dark secrets that four young girls have carried with them but can no longer keep buried...Blue grew up i...
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A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems
Nick Laird & A.E. HousmanA. E. Housman was one of the bestloved poets of his day, whose poems conjure up a potent and idyllic rural world imbued with a poignant sense of loss. They are expressed in simple ...
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The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
Gerald Moore'Poetry, always foremost of the arts in traditional Africa, has continued to compete for primacy against the newer forms of prose fiction and theatre drama.' This wonderfully compr...
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Teeth in the Back of my Neck
Monika Radojevic'This is a courageous, arresting debut from a poet to watch' Independent'A vital contribution to literature' HuckChosen as one of Bustle's Best Debut Books of 2021Chosen as one of ...
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Spanish Fly
Neil RollinsonContinuing where he left off with A Spillage of Mercury, Neil Rollinson's eagerly awaited new collection delves again into the dark, moist, unexpected bag of human experience. Taki...
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Assurances
J. O. MorganWINNER OF THE COSTA POETRY AWARD 2018SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTIONA warpoem both historic and frighteningly topical, Assurances begins in the 1950s dur...
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The Book of Blood
Vicki FeaverSplit between dark and light, this book records the dichotomy of human experience with unflinching force and clarity. It deals with breakup, depression, illness and death. But it a...
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Poems and Prose
Gerard Hopkins & W. GardnerCloser to Dylan Thomas than Matthew Arnold in his 'creative violence' and insistence on the sound of poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins was no staid, conventional Victorian. On entering...
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Selected Poems
Tony HarrisonA revised edition of Tony Harrison's awardwinning Selected Poems This indispensable new selection of Tony Harrison's poems includes over sixty poems from his famous sonnet sequence...
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The Chameleon Poet
Robert FraserThe poet George Barker was convinced that his biography could never be written. 'I've stirred the facts around too much,' he told Robert Fraser. 'It simply can't be done.' Eliot w...
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The Rape of the Lock and Other Major Writings
Alexander Pope & Leo DamroschAlexander Pope (16881744) was the greatest English poet of his age, whose acerbic insights into human nature have entered the language, and whose verse still astonishes with its en...
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Taking Liberties
Leontia FlynnA collection about motherhood at a time of continuous crisis from one of Ireland's most important poets'Everyone should be reading her' OBSERVER'One of the most accomplished poets...
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The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs
Julia Bishop & Steve RoudOne of the Spectator's Books of the Year 2012'Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladiesFarewell and adieu to you ladies of SpainFor we've received orders for to sail for old En...
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Survivors
William PeskettSurvivors is William Peskett's second book in the Secker & Warburg Poets series. At one level, it marks his move 'From Belfast to Suffolk' (the title of one of the poems), but ...
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Playtime
Andrew McMillanWINNER OF THE POLARI PRIZE 2019‘Vivid, accessible and honest, sometimes uncomfortably so’ Alan Bennett, London Review of BooksIn these intimate, sometimes painfully frank poems, An...
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Demolition
Neil RollinsonWith the frank, subversive, and very funny poems in his first two books, Neil Rollinson established himself as a deft cartographer of the sensual world. While a rich and tactile er...
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The Penguin Book of Elegy
Prof Stephen Regan & Andrew Motion'A tremendous sentimental education of a book ... a literary adventure ... chosen with a scholarly discernment mixed with a wildcard flair ... fascinating and unignorable' Kate Kel...
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The Lymond Poetry
Dorothy DunnettA beautiful collection of Renaissance poetry, assembled by one of the world's finest historical novelists.Dorothy Dunnett died in November 2001. She left behind this anthology, cho...
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A Shorter Life
Alan JenkinsIn his most eloquent and formally satisfying collection to date, Alan Jenkins plays a series of powerful and haunting variations on love and loss. The themes that run through our l...
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Selected Poems
John DrydenA new and comprehensive selection of Dryden's poetry, revealing him as a master of theatricality, ventriloquism, and unmistakable originality. Brought together here are many of the...