Gillian Clarke should not be confused with Gillian Clark (disambiguation).
| Gillian Clarke | |
| Office: | National Poet of Wales |
| Term Start: | 2008 |
| Term End: | March 2016 |
| Predecessor: | Gwyn Thomas |
| Successor: | Ifor ap Glyn |
| Birth Date: | 8 June 1937 |
| Nationality: | Welsh |
| Occupation: | Writer |
Gillian Clarke (born 8 June 1937) is a Welsh poet and playwright, who also edits, broadcasts, lectures and translates from Welsh into English. She co-founded Tŷ Newydd, a writers' centre in North Wales.[1]
Gillian Clarke was born on 8 June 1937 in Cardiff.[2] [3]
After university, Clarke spent a year working for the BBC in London. She then returned to Cardiff, where she gave birth to her daughter, Catrin, and two sons. About Catrin she wrote a poem under her name. Clarke worked as an English teacher, first at the Reardon-Smith Nautical College and later at Newport College of Art.
In the mid-1980s she moved to rural Ceredigion, West Wales, with her second husband, after which she spent some years teaching creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. In 1990 she was a co-founder of Tŷ Newydd, a writers' centre in North Wales.
Her poetry is studied by GCSE and A Level students throughout the United Kingdom. A considerable number of her poems are used in the GCSE AQA Anthology. She has given poetry readings and lectures in Europe and the United States; her work has been translated into ten languages.[1] Some of her English poems were translated into Chinese by Peter Jingcheng Xu and published in the journal Foreign Literature and Art (Issue 6, December 2016).[4]
Clarke has published numerous collections of poetry for adults and children (see below), as well as dramatic commissions and articles in a wide range of publications. She is a former editor of The Anglo-Welsh Review (1975–84) and the current president of Tŷ Newydd. Several of her books have received a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In 1999, Gillian Clarke received the Glyndŵr Award for an "Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales" during the Machynlleth Festival. She was on the judging panel for the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize. Clarke reads her poetry for teenagers who are taking their English GCSE school exams. She is part of the GCSE Poetry Live team that also includes John Agard, Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, Moniza Alvi, Grace Nichols, Daljit Nagra and Choman Hardi.
In December 2013, Clarke was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. She has written over 100 poems during her career.[5]
In 2008, Gillian Clarke became the third National Poet of Wales.[6] She held the post until 2016, when she was succeeded by Ifor ap Glyn.[7] In 2010 she was awarded the Queen's for Poetry and became the second Welsh person to receive the honour.[8]
In 2011 Clarke joined the Gorsedd of Bards.[9] In 2012 she received the Wilfred Owen Association Poetry award.[10]
The book Ice was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2012.[11]