Hannah Pool
{{Short description|British–Eritrean writer and journalist (born 1974)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Hannah Pool
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| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Hannah Azieb Pool
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}
| death_date =
| occupation = Writer, journalist
| language =
| nationality = British-Eritrean
| alma_mater = Liverpool University
| spouse =
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Hannah Azieb Pool (born 1974) is a British–Eritrean writer and journalist. She was born near the town of Keren in Eritrea during the war for independence from Ethiopia. She is a former staff writer for The Guardian newspaper,Hannah Pool, [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/hannahpool The Guardian profile page.] and writes regularly for national and international media. She is a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK.[http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com/patrons/ Patrons], SI Leeds Literary Prize. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113195227/http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com/patrons/ |date=13 November 2014 }}. Since 2019, Pool has been Artistic Director/CEO at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, north London.{{cite web|url=https://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/hannah-azieb-pool-joins-bernie-grant-arts-centre-as-artistic-director/|title=Hannah Azieb Pool Joins The Bernie Grant Arts Centre As Artistic Director|website=Bernie Grant Arts Centre|access-date=17 October 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/welcome-back-to-the-bernie-grant-arts-centre/|title=Welcome back to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre|website=Bernie Grant Arts Centre|access-date=12 October 2024}}
Biography
= Early life and education =
At the age of six months, Pool was adopted by a British scholar working in Sudan. At first she was raised in Khartoum and then Norway, before finally settling in Manchester, England. She grew up believing that her genetic parents had died shortly after her birth.Ojumu, Akin, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/aug/14/biography.features1 "Ancestral voices"] (review of My Fathers' Daughter), The Observer, 14 August 2005. She was educated at Liverpool University, where she studied Sociology.[https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Fathers-Daughter-Hannah-Pool/dp/0241142601 Details of Pool's early life cited in her autobiography My Father's Daughter (2005).]
= Career =
After leaving university, Pool became a journalist on the Manchester Evening News and has written extensively for The Guardian newspaper, where for several years she wrote the fashion column "The New Black".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/may/28/healthandwellbeing.beauty|title=The new black|first=Hannah|last=Pool|newspaper=The Guardian|date=28 May 2005}} However, at the age of 19 she had received a letter informing her that her genetic father and siblings were alive in Eritrea. Her memoir, My Fathers' Daughter: A story of family and belonging, was published in 2005 and is an account of the journey she made back to Eritrea, aged 29, and her encounters with her family.[https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Fathers-Daughter-Hannah-Pool/dp/0241142601 My Fathers' Daughter] at Amazon Books.
Pool was a Senior Programmer of Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre, London. In February 2019, she took up a new appointment as the Artistic Director/CEO at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham. She is founder of the Tottenham Literature Festival, is a trustee of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), serves on the Artist's Advisory Board of the Manchester International Festival and is also a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK.{{cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/30291/hannah-azieb-pool?tab=penguin-biography|title=Hannah Azieb Pool {{!}} Biography|publisher=Penguin Nooks Limited|access-date=12 October 2024}}
Pool is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.{{cite web|url=https://myriadeditions.com/authors/margaret-busby/new-daughters-at-bernie-grant-arts-centre/|title=New Daughters at Bernie Grant Arts Centre|publisher=Myriad|access-date=16 October 2022}}
Bibliography
- My Fathers' Daughter, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 2005. {{ISBN|0241142601}}. {{ISBN|978-0241142608}}
- Fashion Cities Africa (editor), University of Chicago Press, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1783206117}}[http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=5183/ "Fashion Cities Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914220528/https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=5183/ |date=14 September 2017 }} (review), Intellect.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://www.hannahpool.com/ Official website.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622162037/http://www.hannahpool.com/ |date=22 June 2018 }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120621134127/http://www.arisemagazine.net/articles/talking-teds/101453/ Talking TEDs, Arise magazine, video.]
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Category:Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Category:Black British women writers
Category:Black British writers
Category:British women journalists
Category:English people of Eritrean descent
Category:Eritrean women journalists
Category:Eritrean women writers