Lavinia Greenlaw
Encyclopedia
Biography
Greenlaw was born in London into a family of doctors and scientists, but spent much of her childhood in a small village in EssexEssex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. She began her working life in publishing and arts administration before embarking upon a career as a freelance artist, critic and radio broadcaster. She lives in London and currently works as professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
. She was a judge for the 2010 Manchester Poetry Prize
Manchester Poetry Prize
The Manchester Poetry Prize is a literary award celebrating excellence in creative writing. It was launched by Carol Ann Duffy and The Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008, and was the first phase of the annual Manchester Writing Competition.Open internationally...
.
Writings
Her work is heavily informed by her interest in science and scientific enquiry, and by themes of displacement, loss and belonging. Critics have noted that her poetry is remarkable in its precision, and that her best poems contain a complexity and elusiveness that lead them to 'appreciate with each re-reading'.Awards
Lavinia Greenlaw has been shortlisted for a number of literary awards, including the Whitbread Book Award (now known as the Costa Book AwardsCosta Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
) and the T. S. Eliot Prize
T. S. Eliot Prize
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in...
for Poetry. She won the French Prix du Premier Roman for her first novel, Mary George of Allnorthover and, most notably, the Forward Prize
Forward Poetry Prize
The Forward Poetry Prizes were created in 1991. The aim of the prizes is to extend the audience for contemporary poetry. Until the T.S. Eliot Prize remuneration was increased to £15,000 plus £1000 to each of nine runners-up, the Forward was the United Kingdom's most valuable annual poetry...
for Best Single Poem for 'A World Where News Travelled Slowly', the title poem from her second major collection.
Selected works
- The Cost of Getting Lost in Space, Turret Books, 1991
- Love from a Foreign City, Slow Dancer Press, 1992, ISBN 9781871033182
- Night Photograph, Faber and Faber, 1993
- A World Where News Travelled Slowly, Faber and Faber, poetry, 1997
- Mary George of Allnorthover, Flamingo, novel July 9, 20012001 in literatureThe year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters...
, ISBN 9780618095230 - Minsk, Faber and Faber, poetry, 2003, ISBN 9780571222711
- Thoughts of a Night Sea (Photographs by Garry Fabian Miller), Merrell, 2003
- An Irresponsible Age, Fourth Estate, 2006, ISBN 9780007156290
- The Importance of Music to Girls, Faber and Faber, 2007, ISBN 9780375174544 http://us.macmillan.com/theimportanceofmusictogirls
- The Casual Perfect, Faber and Faber, poetry, 2011, ISBN 9780571278169
Television
In 2011 Greenlaw appeared as a 'talking head' on the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary Top of the Pops: The Story of 1976.