Jane Draycott

Draycott teaches as Senior Associate Tutor on Oxford University's [https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/mst-creative-writing MSt in Creative Writing], and until 2022 was Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University as well as a mentor on the Crossing Borders[http://www.crossingborders-africanwriting.org Crossing Borders] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050206005045/http://www.crossingborders-africanwriting.org/ |date=6 February 2005 }} creative writing initiative, set up by the British Council and Lancaster University. In addition to her work at Oxford and Lancaster, she was [https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowship-scheme/ Royal Literary Fund Fellow] at Oxford Brookes University 2004-06, as well as at Aston University in 2010-12 and Royal Holloway University of London 2021-22. In 2014-16 she was a Royal Literary Fund [RLF] Lector, becoming an Advisory Fellow in 2018 and appointed as an RLF Associate Fellow in 2022.

Draycott's translation work{{Cite web |title=Modern Poetry in Translation - author biography | url=

https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poet/jane-draycott/ |access-date=2024-09-24}} includes a poetic version of the 14th century elegy '[https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=1064 'Pearl']' - a Stephen Spender Prize-winner in 2008{{Cite web |title=The Times Stephen Spender Prize 2008 (winners) - Jane Draycott| url=https://www.stephen-spender.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stephen_Spender_Prize_2008.pdf |access-date=2024-09-30}} - and a collection of new translations of the 20th century artist and poet Henri Michaux '[https://tworiverspress.com/shop/storms-under-the-skin/ 'Storms Under the Skin']' (a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation) published in 2017 by Two Rivers Press. In 2013, Draycott was Writer-in-Residence hosted by the Dutch Foundation for Literature in Amsterdam, researching poet Martinus Nijhoff's modernist Dutch narrative Awater.{{Cite web |title=Poetry Society article online: After Awater – Jane Draycott joins the trail | url=https://poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-section/poetry-news/after-awater-jane-draycott-joins-the-trail/ |access-date=2024-09-25}}

Draycott was previously poet in residence at Henley's River and Rowing Museum, creating a millennium archive of audio interviews with the men and women working on the London Thames. She has recorded a number of her poems for The Poetry Archive[http://www.poetryarchive.org/ The Poetry Archive] and is one of the poets featured in the national [https://poetrybyheart.org.uk/ Poetry By Heart] anthology.{{Cite book|url=http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/|title=Poetry by Heart: Poems for Learning and Reciting|editor=Motion, Andrew; Blake, Julie; Sprackland, Jean; Dixon, Mike|date=2 October 2014|publisher=Viking|isbn=978-0241185544}}

Settings to music of Draycott's poems have included a setting for the award-winning choir Tenebrae by composer Joanna Marsh of [https://joannamarsh.co.uk/product/in-winters-house-ttbarbb/ 'In Winter's House'] (originally commissioned as part of laureate Carol Ann Duffy's 'Carols for Christmas' for The Guardian December 2010), premiered at the Wigmore Hall in December 2019.

Her collaborative work includes two collections from Two Rivers Press: [https://tworiverspress.com/shop/christina-the-astonishing/ Christina the Astonishing] (1992), co-written with poet Lesley Saunders and illustrated by artist Peter Hay; and [https://tworiverspress.com/shop/tideway/ Tideway] (2002), a sequence of poems written as part of a project with photographer Jaap Oepkes, documenting the lives of London's Company of Thames Watermen and women, with artworks by artist Peter Hay (both collections republished in 2022 in the [https://tworiverspress.com/product-category/literature-and-memoir/illustrated-classics/ Two Rivers Classics] series). Her poem from this collection, 'No. 3 from Uses for the Thames', was shortlisted for the 2002 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem and features in the [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/product/london-is-open-poems-on-the-underground-95-set-of-six-posters/ Poems on the Underground 2016] series 'London is Open'.

Other collaborative work includes several award-winning sound-compositions with poet Elizabeth James ([https://soundcloud.com/aneraycott/sea-green-i Sea Green I and II] - winner of BBC Radio 3 Poem for Radio 1998; [https://soundcloud.com/aneraycott/a-glass-case?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Faneraycott%252Fa-glass-case A Glass Case] for BBC R3 [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x2tq Between the Ears] (1999), produced by Susan Roberts; and Rock Music for LBC radio, winner of a London Sound Art Award 2000, produced by Richard Shannon).

In 2010, Draycott was part of Simon Barraclough's [https://simonbarraclough.com/psycho-poetica Psycho Poetica], a collaborative multi-media event launched at the British Film Institute for the 50th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's seminal thriller, and in 2013 was one of ten poets commissioned by Barraclough for his BFI collaborative project [https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=poets-on-pasolini-a-new-decameron Poets on Pasolini: A New Decameron]. Her poem 'Who keeps observance in the fever room?' from [https://juliabird.wordpress.com/about/ Julia Bird]'s 2015

Beginning to See the Light event at London's South Bank has been made into [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk_fd96gHLs a film by filmmaker Corinne Silva].

Draycott's debut poetry pamphlet No Theatre (Smith/Doorstop, 1997) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and her first full collection Prince Rupert's Drop[http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781903039755 Prince Rupert's Drop] (OUP and [https://www.carcanet.co.uk/index.shtml Carcanet Press], 1999) was shortlisted two years later for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

In 2002 she was the winner of the Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry{{Cite web |title=Keats-Shelley Prize 2002 (winners) - Jane Draycott (Keats-Shelley Memorial Association)| url=

https://www.keats-shelley.org/prizes/the_keats_shelley_prize_2002

|access-date=2024-09-30}} with the title poem of her second collection, [https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781903039724 The Night Tree], and in 2004 she was nominated as one of the Poetry Book Society's [http://books.guardian.co.uk/nextgenerationpoets/0%2C%2C1231558%2C00.html 'Next Generation'] poets. In 2009, her collection '[https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781903039922 'Over']' was nominated for the T S Eliot Prize, and in 2016 her next collection [https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784103002 The Occupant] was selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Draycott has served on judging panels for a number of literary prizes, including the T S Eliot Prize, the Society of Authors' Vondel Prize for translation, the Edward Thomas Prize, The Troubadour International Poetry Prize, the Tower Poetry Competition (Christ Church Oxford), and all three of the UK [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/ Poetry Society]'s National Poetry Competition, Foyles Young Poets Awards, and Geoffrey Dearmer Prize.

In 2020 Draycott was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature{{Cite web |date=2023-09-01 |title=Draycott, Jane |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/jane-draycott/,%20https://rsliterature.org/fellows/jane-draycott/ |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=Royal Society of Literature |language=en-GB}} and in 2023 was awarded a [https://www2.societyofauthors.org/prizes/the-soa-awards/cholmondeley-awards/ Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award].

• 1997 Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection - Shortlist (No Theatre)
• 1998 BBC Radio 3 Poem For Radio - winner, with Elizabeth James, music by Geoff Pollitt (Sea Green I)
• 1999 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection - Shortlist (Prince Rupert's Drop)
• 2000 London Sound Art Award (LBC) - with Elizabeth James, prod. Richard Shannon (Rock Music)
• 2002 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Single Poem - Shortlist (No. 3 from Uses for the Thames)
• 2002 Keats Shelley Prize (The Night Tree)
• 2004 [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/05/poetry.simonarmitage Next Generation] poet (Poetry Book Society)
• 2004-2006 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University
• 2009 Hawthornden International Fellowship
• 2009 T S Eliot Prize - Shortlist ([https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/over-jane-draycott?view=mobile Over])
• 2020-2012 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Aston University
• 2011 Stephen Spender Prize for Pearl
• 2012 National Poetry Competition - Second Prizewinner ([https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/italy-to-lord/ Italy to Lord])
• 2014 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine (The Return)
• 2019 [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-mick-imlah-poetry-prize-2019-winners/ "TLS Mick Imlah Poetry Prize".] - Second Prizewinner (In the bones of the disused gasometer)
• 2021 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Royal Holloway University of London
• 2020 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
• 2023 Society of Authors Cholmondeley Award

• {{cite book| title=No Theatre| publisher=Smith/Doorstop Books| year=1997| isbn=978-1-869961-88-6 }}
• {{cite book| title=Christina the Astonishing | others=Illustrator Peter Hay| publisher=Two Rivers Press| year=1998| isbn=978-1-901677-07-2 | author=Jane Draycott & Lesley Saunders }}
• Prince Rupert's Drop (Carcanet Press, 1999)
• {{cite book| title=Tideway| others=Illustrator Peter Hay| publisher=Two Rivers Press| year=2002| isbn=978-1-901677-33-1 }}
• The Night Tree (Carcanet Press, 2004)
• Over (Carcanet Press, 2009)
• Pearl (Carcanet Press, 2011)
• The Occupant (Carcanet Press, 2016)
• Storms Under the Skin: Selected Poems 1927-1954 Henri Michaux - translations (Two Rivers Press, 2017)
• The Kingdom (Carcanet Press, 2022)

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.janedraycott.org.uk Author's Website] (or [https://web.archive.org/web/20101024154907/https://www.janedraycott.org.uk/ archived] on Wayback Machine: 24 October 2010)
• Jane Draycott [https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=179 author page, Carcanet Press] (or [https://web.archive.org/web/20240815131956/https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=179 archived] on Wayback Machine: 15 August 2024)
• [https://www.rlf.org.uk/writer/jane-draycott/ Jane Draycott biography page, Royal Literary Fund website] (or [https://web.archive.org/web/20240726135620/https://www.rlf.org.uk/writer/jane-draycott/ RLF author page archived] on Wayback Machine: 26 July 2024)
• [https://www.rlf.org.uk/news-features/?type=collected&format=&keywords=Draycott Jane Draycott's Royal Literary Fund 'Collected' audio]
• [https://poetryarchive.org/poet/jane-draycott/ Jane Draycott Poetry Archive recordings]
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview33?CMP=gu_com Tideway extract] (3 poems) - The Guardian Saturday Poem, Sept 2002
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/25/featuresreviews.guardianreview12?INTCMP=SRCH "Precisely perfect".] Review of The Night Tree in The Guardian Saturday 25 September 2004
• Simon Armitage on [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/05/poetry.simonarmitage Next Generation poets 2004], The Guardian, June 2004
• [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/what-is-held-here/ 'What is Held Here'] poem on Poetry Society website
• Jane Draycott: [https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/pearl-extract/ Pearl translation (extract)] in Modern Poetry in Translation journal, 2007
• [https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?showdoc=720;doctype=review Reviews of Over (2009)] on Carcanet website
• [https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-18038_THE-SHOWER-SCENE 'The Shower Scene'] poem from Simon Barraclough's BFI Psycho Poetica project 2010, on Poetry International website ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240815131957/https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-18038_THE-SHOWER-SCENE archived] on Wayback Machine: 15 August 2024)
• [https://poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/prince-ruperts-drop 'Prince Rupert's Drop'] poem in Poetry by Heart online anthology (or [https://web.archive.org/web/20210126152007/http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/prince-ruperts-drop/ Poetry by Heart webpage archived] on Wayback Machine: 26 January 2021)
• Edmund Prestwich [https://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?p=1111 review of Pearl], The Manchester Review 2011
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/pearl-by-jane-draycott-2327581.html Boyd Tonkin review of Pearl], The Independent 2011
• {{cite journal|url=http://www.towerpoetry.org.uk/reviews/reviews-archive/162-jane-draycott-reviews-how-to-write-a-poem-by-john-redmond |title=Jane Draycott reviews How to Write a Poem by John Redmond |journal=Tower Poetry |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705215837/http://www.towerpoetry.org.uk/reviews/reviews-archive/162-jane-draycott-reviews-how-to-write-a-poem-by-john-redmond |archivedate= 5 July 2011 }}
• [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/italy-to-lord/ 'Italy to Lord'] poem - The Poetry Society, NPC website (2012)
• Jane Draycott, Rebecca Goss And Jo Shapcott - [https://soundcloud.com/medicineunboxed/medicine-unboxed-mortality-elegy?in=medicineunboxed/sets/medicine-unboxed-2015-mortality recording of ELEGY] event from Medicine Unboxed 'Mortality' conference, 2015
• [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-section/poetry-news/after-awater-jane-draycott-joins-the-trail/ 'After Awater: Jane Draycott joins the trail'], article in The Poetry Society's Poetry News 2015
• '[https://soundcloud.com/poetrysociety/after-awater-jane-draycott After Awater]: Jane Draycott on an enigmatic masterpiece' (audio), The Poetry Society on SoundCloud, 2015
• [https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/from-the-occupant/ "The Occupant".] (extract) in Modern Poetry in Translation journal, 2016
• [https://poemsontheunderground.org/no-3-from-uses-for-the-thames%20* 'No. 3 from Uses for the Thames'] poem - Poems on the Underground 2016
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/jan/02/poem-of-the-week-italy-to-lord-by-jane-draycott 'Italy to Lord'] - Carol Rumens Poem of the Week in The Guardian 2 January 2017
• [https://poetrylondon.co.uk/the-experiment-by-jane-draycott/ 'The Experiment'] poem, in Poetry London journal, 2017
• 'Restless Ectoplasm': Hilary Davies' [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/poetry-literature/restless-poet-henri-michaux-writer-translation/ review of The Occupant and Storms Under the Skin] (translations from Henri Michaux) - TLS, April 2018
• [https://poemsontheunderground.org/some-favourite-poems "India"] poem - Poems on the Underground 2019
• Jane Draycott reads [https://soundcloud.com/user-658269576-293956800/2-poems-by-henri-michaux-translated-and-read-by-jane-draycott (audio) from Storms Under the Skin] - translations from Henri Michaux 1927-1954 (Two Rivers Press SoundCloud 2020)
• Maya Popa on [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/poem-of-the-week/the-namesake/ 'The Namesake'] poem - TLS Poem of the Week, 2020
• Jane Draycott [https://tworiverspress.com/2020/06/01/poet-of-the-week-9-jane-draycott/ Poet of the Week -Two Rivers Press], June 2020
• [https://www.napkinpoetryreview.org/poem-by-jane-draycott 'Once I asked if we could take a rain check'] poem, with artist Mustashrik Mahbub - Napkin Poetry Review 2021
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/14/poem-of-the-week-the-claim-by-jane-draycott 'The Claim'] poem - Carol Rumens' Poem of the Week, The Guardian, 14 November 2022
• Maya Popa [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/in-brief/the-kingdom-jane-draycott-book-review-maya-popa/ review of The Kingdom] - Times Literary Supplement 2023

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Category:1954 births

Category:Living people

Category:Academics of Lancaster University

Category:Academics of the University of Oxford

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:Alumni of the University of Bristol

Category:English women poets

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature