Isabelle Baafi
{{Short description|English writer and editor}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image =
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = London, England, U,K,
| occupation = Writer and editor
| nationality =
| alma_mater = University of Kent
University of Oxford
| awards = Somerset Maugham Award
| notable_works = Ripe (2020);
Chaotic Good (2025)
| website = {{URL|isabellebaafi.com}}
}}
Isabelle Baafi is an English writer and editor, noted for her poetry.
Her writing has appeared in publications, including the Times Literary Supplement, London Magazine, The Poetry Review, Oxford Poetry, and Magma Poetry.{{cite web|url=https://www.faber.co.uk/author/isabelle-baafi/|title=Isabelle Baafi|publisher= Faber & Faber}}{{cite web|url=https://humag.co/features/isabelle-baafi |title=Features {{!}} Isabelle Baafi {{!}} An Interview|work =The Honest Ulsterman|first=Greg|last=McCartney|date=September 2024|access-date=27 May 2025}} She is the reviews editor of Poetry London.{{cite web|url=https://poetrylondon.co.uk/about/|title=About us|work= Poetry London|access-date=27 May 2025}}
Background
Baafi was born in London, England, and is of Jamaican and South African descent.
She studied at the University of Kent, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative literature and film.{{cite web|url=https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/hss/centres/poetry-centre/ignitionpress/poets|title=Poets|publisher=Oxford Brookes University|access-date=27 May 2025}} She also earned a postgraduate degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford.{{cite web|url=https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/isabelle-baafi|title=Isabelle Baafi|publisher= Curtis Brown |access-date=28 May 2025}}
She was the winner of the 2019 Vincent Cooper Literary Prize,{{cite press release|url=https://www.thecaribbeanwriter.org/2020/01/13/volume-33-prize-winners/|title=The Caribbean Writer Announces Volume 33 Prize Winners|work =The Caribbean Writer|date=13 January 2020|access-date=28 May 2025}} and was shortlisted for the 2019 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, presented by the Oxford Brookes University.{{cite web|url=https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/blogs/news/meet-isabelle-baafi|title=Meet Isabelle Baafi|publisher= Poetry Book Society|access-date=27 May 2025}}
Baafi's 2020 debut pamphlet, Ripe, won a Somerset Maugham Award and was the Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice for Spring 2021. Baafi was also shortlisted for the 2020 Bridport Prize and the 2021 Brunei International African Poetry Prize.{{cite web|url=https://www.africanpoetryprize.org/previous-shortlists|title=The African Poetry Prize {{!}} Winners, Shortlists & Judges |publisher = Brunei International African Poetry Prize|access-date=27 May 2025}}
Baafi has served as a Ledbury poetry critic, an Obsidian Foundation Fellow, and a board member at Magma.{{cite web|url=https://www.arvon.org/tutors/isabelle-baafi/|title=Tutors {{!}} Isabelle Baafi|publisher= Arvon Foundation|access-date=27 May 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://magmapoetry.com/interview-nick-makoha-obsidian/|first=Isabelle|last=Baafi|author-link=Isabelle Baafi|title=Interview with Nick Makoha about the Obsidian Foundation|work = Magma Poetry|date=2 February 2021 |access-date=27 May 2025}} In 2023, Baafi was the winner of the Winchester Poetry Prize (presented by the Winchester Poetry Festival held in Winchester) for her poem "The Path of Least Resilience".{{cite web|url=https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/23868965.latest-winchester-poetry-festival-declared-success-organisers/|title=Latest Winchester Poetry Festival Declared a Success by Organisers|first=Christopher|last=Atkinson|newspaper =Hampshire Chronicle|date=24 October 2023|access-date=28 May 2025}}
Her first poetry collection Chaotic Good, published by Faber & Faber, was selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Summer 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/chaotic-good-by-isabelle-baafi-pre-order?srsltid=AfmBOorSG4D8tGQ23Kn8ICRxuHypd_8NYLLQF_w5Vl81xrnjSYGky-cQ|title=Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi {{!}} Poetry Book Society Recommendation Summer 2025|publisher= Poetry Book Society|access-date=27 May 2025}}
Publications
- Ripe (Ignition Press, 2020)
- Chaotic Good (Faber and Faber, 2025, {{ISBN|9780571390953}})
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{url|isabellebaafi.com}}, Baafi's official website
- [https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/de54f0c3-7c34-4e3a-9c2a-54758617e1ce/1/ "An interview with Isabelle Baafi about her ignitionpress pamphlet Ripe"], Radar, Oxford Brookes University, 2020.
- Isabelle Baafi, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c7ht "Double Vision"], The Essay, BBC Radio 3, 28 September 2022.
- [https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-video/podcasts/isabelle-baafi-lavinia-greenlaw-chaotic-good "Isabelle Baafi & Lavinia Greenlaw: Chaotic Good"] (podcast), London Review Bookshop, 9 April 2025.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baafi, Isabelle}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century English poets
Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:Alumni of the University of Kent
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:Black British women writers
Category:British literary editors
Category:British magazine writers
Category:English magazine editors
Category:English women editors
category:English people of Jamaican descent
Category:English people of South African descent