Jo Shapcott
{{Short description|English poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jo Shapcott
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| honorific_suffix = FRSL
| image = Jo shapcott 4525.JPG
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| caption = at Lannan Poetry Series 2014
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|03|24|df=yes}}
| birth_place = London, United Kingdom
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| language = English
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| alma_mater = St Hilda's College, Oxford
Harvard University
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| genre = Poetry
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| notableworks = Of Mutability (2010)
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| awards = National Poetry Competition
Commonwealth Poetry Prize
Costa Book of the Year Award
Forward Prize{{en dash}}Collection
Cholmondeley Award.
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Jo Shapcott {{Post-nominals|country=UK|FRSL}}[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2616063.stm 31 December 2002. Edinburgh boss heads arts honours. BBC article] (born 24 March 1953 in London) is an English poet, editor and lecturer who has won the National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Costa Book of the Year Award, a Forward Prizes for Poetry and the Cholmondeley Award.
Early life and education
Jo Shapcott was born 24 March 1953 in London. She lived in Hemel Hempstead and attended Cavendish School in the town prior to studying as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin. Later she studied at St Hilda's College, Oxford and received a Harkness Fellowship to Harvard.[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6228 Poetry Foundation Biog]
Career
Shapcott teaches on the MA in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was a visiting professor at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University,[http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla/events/item/colette-bryce-daljit-nagra-jo-shapcott Newcastle university] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329141901/http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla/events/item/colette-bryce-daljit-nagra-jo-shapcott |date=2010-03-29 }} was a visiting professor at the London Institute and was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University from 2003 to 2005.[http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/profile.cfm?fellow=46&menu=6 Royal Literary Fund biog] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716144016/http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/profile.cfm?fellow=46&menu=6 |date=2011-07-16 }}[http://www.rhul.ac.uk/english/about-us/Staff/Shapcott/JoanneShapcott.htm Royal Holloway, University of London website, Shapcott synopsis] She is a longstanding tutor for the Arvon Foundation.{{Cite web |url=http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p191.html |title=Arvon Foundation |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-date=4 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004162113/http://www.arvonfoundation.org/p191.html |url-status=dead }} and a former president of the Poetry Society.[http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/aboutus/ Poetry Society Biog] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504140414/http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/aboutus|date=2009-05-04}}
Shapcott was appointed as CBE in 2002. She initially accepted the honour but decided to refuse during the period when the British government made preparations to invade Iraq. She wrote to the Cabinet Office saying " I can't possibly accept this." She commented, "I was being diagnosed and treated for cancer, so great public statements weren't on the cards really. I was just too ill."[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/27/jo-shapcott-poetry-costa "Jo Shapcott: the book of life" 27 January 2011.] Guardian Interview after Costa Prize win[https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-104992297 Extract from Evening Standard article 9 July 2003][http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2616063.stm BBC article 31 December 2002, Edinburgh boss heads arts honours]
In 2016, Shapcott was welcomed as a trustee to The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry.[http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/announcement-jo-shapcott-and-marek-kazmierski-join-the-board-of-the-griffin-trust-for-excellence-in-poetry/ Announcement: Jo Shapcott and Marek Kazmierski join the board of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry (16 November 2016)] In 2019 she was a contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East and West (Gingko Library).
Writing
Shapcott has won the National Poetry Competition twice, in 1985 and 1991. Her Book: Poems 1988-1998 (2000; reprinted 2006) consists of poetry from her three earlier collections: Electroplating the Baby (1988), which won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Best First Collection, Phrase Book (1992), and My Life Asleep (1998), which won the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection). Together with Matthew Sweeney, she edited Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times (1996), an international anthology of contemporary poetry in English. Her 2002 book Tender Taxes is a collection of English versions (or translations) of Rainer Maria Rilke's French poems. Her 2002 collection of essays Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery was co-edited with Linda Anderson. In 2006, Fiona Samson in The Guardian summarised her work: "Shapcott remains overwhelmingly a poet of presence, renegotiating the concrete world with as much brio as her own dancing cow. The consummate openness of this brilliantly intelligent selection extends the possibilities for poetry written in English. It reminds us that she remains a pioneer among contemporary British writers. We should be grateful for her."{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview22| title=Poet of presence | author=Fiona Sampson| work=The Guardian| date=29 April 2006 }}
In 2010, Shapcott published Of Mutability with Faber & Faber, her first collection for 12 years. The 45 poems explore the nature of change, in the body, within the natural world and inside relationships.[http://www.faber.co.uk/work/of-mutability/9780571254705/ Of Mutability. Faber website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725181430/http://www.faber.co.uk/work/of-mutability/9780571254705/ |date=2010-07-25 }} The book of poems was awarded the Costa Book of the Year for 2010, beating contenders in Fiction, Non-Fiction and other categories.{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=Charlotte |date=2011-01-25 |title=Jo Shapcott Takes Costa Book of the Year Award for Of Mutability |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/25/costa-book-award-jo-shapcott |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The judges commented that the book was accessible, "very special and unusual and uplifting... The subject matter was so relevant that if any poetry book could capture the spirit of life in 2011, this would be it". Sinclair Mackay in the Daily Telegraph wrote: "Of Mutability, is so especially rich and resonant that it deserves the widest possible readership, even among those who never usually think of reading poems...And there is a dazzling variety of tone and colour and subject throughout - Shapcott's language dances lightly, and often with wit."[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8282620/Commentary-Costa-prize-will-help-poetry-reach-new-audience.html "Costa prize will help poetry reach new audience" Daily Telegraph 26 January 2011]
The Transformers is an unpublished collection of public lectures given by Shapcott in 2001 as part of her Professorship at Newcastle.
She has written lyrics or had her poems set to music by composers such as Nigel Osborne, Errollyn Wallen and John Woolrich. The American composer Stephen Montague created the work The Creatures Indoors, from her poetry. It was premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London in 1997.[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6228 Poetry Foundation synopsis of Shapcott]
She was a judge for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize, as well as the 2013 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.
Prizes and awards
= Literary Awards =
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year | Work | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
| 1982
| ? || South West Arts Literature Award || — || {{won}} || | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985
|"The Surrealists' Summer Convention Came to Our City" | National Poetry Competition || — || {{won}} || | |||||
| rowspan="2" |1989
| Electroplating the Baby || Commonwealth Poetry Prize || — || {{won}} || | |||||
| ? | New Statesman Prudence Farmer Award | — | {{won}} | ||
| 1991
| "Phrase Book" || National Poetry Competition || — || {{won}} || | |||||
| 1999
| My Life Asleep || Forward Prizes for Poetry || Poetry Collection of the Year|| {{won}} || | |||||
| 2006
| — || Cholmondeley Award || — || {{won}} || | |||||
| rowspan="2" |2010
| rowspan="2" | Of Mutability || rowspan="2" | Costa Book Award || Overall || {{won}} || rowspan="2" | | |||||
| Poetry | {{won}} |
= Honours =
- 1978–80 – Harvard University Harkness Fellowship
- 2002 – CBE (Refused)
- 2011 – The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry{{cite web|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2011/TheQueensGoldMedalforPoetry2011.aspx |title=The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2011 |accessdate=23 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110163307/http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2011/TheQueensGoldMedalforPoetry2011.aspx |archivedate=10 January 2012 }}
Books
=Poetry collections=
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Electroplating the Baby |year=1988 |publisher=Bloodaxe |isbn=9781852240684 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Phrase Book |year=1992 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192829511 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=A Journey to the Inner Eye: A Guide for All |year=1996 |publisher=South Bank Centre |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Motherland |year=1996 |publisher=Gwaithel & Gilwern |isbn=9781952755811 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=My Life Asleep |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192881038 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Poetry Quartets No. 5 |year=1999 |publisher=Bloodaxe |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Her Book: Poems 1988-1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SYPVf2fJaG8C |year=2000 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571264476 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Tender Taxes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-bukhGHB1UC |year=2002 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571264483 |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=Of Mutability |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PD3iMDlx9awC |year=2010 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571268566 |author-mask=2}}
Work with writers
- {{cite book |last1=Shapcott |first1=Jo |title=Penguin Modern Poets: Book 12 |year=1997 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780140587968 |author-mask1=2|last2=Dunmore|first2=Helen|last3=Sweeney|first3=Matthew|author-link2=Helen Dunmore|author-link3=Matthew Sweeney}}
=Collected prose=
{{cite book |last=Shapcott |first=Jo |title=The Transformers: The Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures |publisher=Bloodaxe |year=2011 |isbn=9781852245795 |author-mask=2}}
= Editor =
- {{cite book |title=Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=1996 |editor=Shapcott |editor2=Matthew Sweeney}}
- {{cite book |title=Last Words: New Poetry for the New Century |publisher=Picador |year=1999 |editor=Shapcott |editor2=Don Paterson}}
- {{cite book |title=Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery |publisher=Newcastle/Bloodaxe |year=2002 |editor=Shapcott |editor2=Linda Anderson}}
Further reading
- {{cite journal|title=Pavlova's physics: the poems of Jo Shapcott |journal=The Antioch Review |date=22 March 1997 |author=Jane Satterfield |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1991/is_n2_v55/ai_n28692477/ |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607091321/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1991/is_n2_v55/ai_n28692477/ |archivedate= 7 June 2009 }}
References
{{commons category|Jo Shapcott}}
{{reflist}}
External links
{{external media
|video1= {{YouTube|id=fuZDZ4zncQQ&list=PL64AFE546C1D132C5|title="Jo Shapcott reading I Go Inside the Tree"}}, The Guardian
|video2= [https://vimeo.com/109833414 Jo Shapcott], Lannan Readings and Talks Series, 14 October 2014
}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20101215123259/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth152 Profile, Contemporary Writers, The British Council]
- [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jo-shapcott Profile at the Poetry Foundation]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013233024/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=6473 Profile at The Poetry Archive]
- [http://www.poetrytranslation.org/translators/Jo_Shapcott Profile at Poetry Translation Centre, with article, audio and video links]
- [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/24/jo-shapcott-poet-interview Guardian Interview "Jo Shapcott: I'm not someone chasing her own ambulance"] by Sarah Crown, July 2010. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/27/jo-shapcott-poetry-costa "Jo Shapcott: the book of life" 27 January 2011.] Guardian Interview after Costa Prize win
- [http://lidiavianu.scriptmania.com/jo_shapcott.htm Interview, Lidia Vianu, November 2002] from Desperado Literature.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120428172727/http://www.liv.ac.uk/poetryandscience/essays/jo-shapcott.htm An interview with Jo Shapcott, Deryn Rees-Jones, University of Liverpool]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapcott, Jo}}
Category:Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London
Category:Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford
Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Category:Presidents of the Poetry Society