Liz Berry
Liz Berry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980 (age 43–44) West Midlands,England |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | The Republic of Motherhood,Black Country,The Dereliction,The Home Child |
| Notable awards | Forward Prize Somerset Maugham Award Eric Gregory Award |
Liz Berry(born 1980) is a British poet. She has published threepamphletsand two full-length poetry collections. Her debut collection,Black Country,was named poetry book of the year by several publications, includingThe Guardian.
Early life and education[edit]
Born in 1980, Berry was raised in theBlack CountryofEngland.She trained as a school teacher and initially taught in a primary school. She became interested in poetry after taking a beginners' poetry class at a local college. She later attended theRoyal Holloway, University of London,where she earned an MA inCreative Writing.[1]
Poetry career[edit]
Berry was a recipient of theEric Gregory Awardin 2009. The award is given by theSociety of Authorsto British poets under the age of 30.[2]Berry's firstpamphlet,The Patron Saint of School Girls,was published by tall-lighthouse in 2010.[2]She won thePoetry Londoncompetition in 2012 for the poemBird.[3]
In 2014,Chatto and WinduspublishedBlack Country,Berry's first poetry collection.Black Countrywon theForward Prizefor Best First Collection, theGeoffrey Faber Memorial Prize,and theSomerset Maugham Award.[4]Black Countrywas selected as poetry book of the year by several publications, includingThe Guardian.[5][6]
TheRepublic of Motherhood,Berry's secondpamphlet,was published by Chatto and Windus in 2018. The title poem won theForward Prizefor Best Single Poem.[7]
Following,The Republic of Motherhood,Berry collaborated with Black Country artist Tom Hicks onThe Dereliction(Hercules Editions, 2021), a pamphlet of poems and photographs exploring their home region.
In 2023, Chatto and Windus publishedThe Home Child,a novel in verse, which reimagines the story of Berry's great aunt, Eliza Showell, one of the many children forcibly migrated to Canada as part of the British Child Migrant Schemes.The Home Childwas adapted for BBC Radio 4 as "The Ballad of Eliza Showell" and was a Radio Pick of The Week for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and The Radio Times.
Berry's writing is rooted in the landscape and dialect of theWest Midlands.In 2014,Ben WilkinsoninThe GuardiansummarizedBlack Country:"It digs deep into the poet’s West Midlands roots, enlivening and reimagining the heritage of that eponymous heartland of iron foundries, coal mines and steel mills, on both personal and public footings".[8]Her poem 'Homing', a love poem to the language of the Black Country, became part of the AQA GCSE syllabus in 2023.
Berry lives inBirminghamwith her family. She is a patron of Writing West Midlands and in 2023 she was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by The University of Wolverhampton.
Works[edit]
- (2010)—The Patron Saint of Girls,tall-lighthouse,ISBN9781904551829
- (2014)—Black Country,Chatto and Windus,ISBN9780701188573
- (2018)—The Republic of Motherhood,Vintage Digital,ASINB07CN8RDS1
- (2021)—The Derelictionwith Tom Hicks, Hercules Editions
- (2023)—The Home Child,Chatto & Windus,ISBN978-1784742683
Awards[edit]
- (2018)—Forward Prizes for Poetryfor Best Single Poem,Republic of Motherhood[9]
- (2015)—Somerset Maugham AwardforBlack Country[5]
- (2014)—Forward Prizefor Best First Collection, forBlack Country[5]
- (2014)—Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize[10]
- (2012)—Poetry Londoncompetition[3]
- (2009)—Eric Gregory Award[2]
References[edit]
- ^Anderson, Natalya."The Poetry Extension's Poet of the Month".Poetry Extension.Retrieved8 September2018.
- ^abc"Liz Berry b. 1980".Poetry Archive.Retrieved8 September2018..
- ^ab"Autumn 2012: Issue 73".Poetry London.Retrieved8 September2018.
- ^"Liz Berry".Poetry Foundation.Retrieved8 September2018.
- ^abc"Liz Berry".British Council.Retrieved8 September2018.
- ^"The Republic of Motherhood".Forward Arts Foundation.Retrieved9 September2018.
- ^"Republic of Motherhood".Forward Arts Foundation.Retrieved9 September2018.
- ^Wilkinson, Ben (21 November 2014)."Black Country by Liz Berry poetry review – 'love flowed out of me like honey'".The Guardian.Retrieved9 September2018.
- ^Saunders, Tristam Fane (8 September 2018)."The year's best poems: The Republic of Motherhood by Liz Berry".The Telegraph.Retrieved8 September2018.
- ^"The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize 2014".Faber & Faber.17 November 2015.Retrieved8 September2018.
External links[edit]
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