Kate Fox (writer)
{{short description|British poet, author and comedian|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{About|the poet, author and comedian|the writer and social anthropologist|Kate Fox}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Kathryn Fox
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1975|05|31}}
| image = File:Kate_Fox_Poet.jpg
| birth_place = Bradford, Yorkshire, England
| education = Loughborough University
| occupation = Writer, Poet, Comedian
| website = {{URL|katefox.co.uk}}
| alma_mater = University of Leeds (PhD)
| thesis_title = Resistance in solo stand-up performance by Northern English women marginalised on the basis of gender, class and regional identity
| thesis_url = http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20722/1/PhDpostVIVACorrectionsFINALTOSUBMIT.pdf
| thesis_year = 2018
| discipline = class, gender, comedy, identity
| notable_works = {{plainlist|
- How stand-ups construct and are constructed by the 'Northernness Effect'{{Cite journal|last=Fox|first=Kate|date=2018-01-02|title=How stand-ups construct and are constructed by the 'Northernness Effect'|journal=Comedy Studies|language=en|volume=9|issue=1|pages=19–35|doi=10.1080/2040610x.2018.1437164|s2cid=192364461|issn=2040-610X}}
- Confetti and red squirrels: a stand-up autoethnography as an archive of detritus,{{Cite journal|last=Fox|first=Kate|date=2016-01-02|title=Confetti and red squirrels: a stand-up autoethnography as an archive of detritus|journal=Comedy Studies|language=en|volume=7|issue=1|pages=21–37|doi=10.1080/2040610x.2016.1140478|s2cid=191405088|issn=2040-610X}}
}}
}}
Kate Fox is a British poet, author and comedian,{{cite web|url=https://www.valleypressuk.com/author/40/kate_fox|title=Kate Fox|work=Valley Press Authors}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/picturethepoet/learn/kate-fox.php|title=Picture the Poet - Kate Fox|website=www.npg.org.uk|accessdate=18 October 2018}} who lives in North Yorkshire.{{cite web|url=https://katefoxwriter.wordpress.com/|title=Kate Fox. Mostly a Poet and performer of Poems. Often, not always, funny.|work=Blog}} Her poetry residencies have included: Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 from 2007–14, the Yorkshire Festival, 2014, the Glastonbury Festival 2013 and the Great North Run, 2011. She also writes topical and personal pieces for Standard Issue magazine and The Journal newspaper.{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-fox-183485|title=Kate Fox|work=The Conversation}} Fox has performed her poetry on BBC One and BBC Two as well as numerous radio shows. She has supported acts including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hollie McNish, John Cooper Clarke and John Hegley and is a headline act in her own right.{{cite web|url=https://katefoxwriter.wordpress.com/|title=Short Bio.|work=Blog}}
Early life
Kathryn Elizabeth Fox was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1975 and grew up in Yorkshire and Cumbria. She went to Queensbury School in Bradford, then studied a BSc in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University and graduating in 1996.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}
Career
Fox originally trained as a radio journalist at Trinity and Leeds Trinity University in Leeds and worked as a reporter, bulletin reader and desk editor at commercial stations including Metro Radio and Galaxy Radio in Newcastle and Manchester until 2005.
She then began working full-time as a poet and workshop facilitator in the North East of England. One of her first workshops included the then newly divorced comedian Sarah Millican, who Kate encouraged to pursue a career in stand-up.{{Cite news|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-02-19/sarah-millican-stand-up-on-telly-is-one-thing-but-seeing-it-live-is-something-else/|title=Sarah Millican: Stand-up on telly is one thing, but seeing it live is something else|work=Radio Times|accessdate=18 October 2018}}
She has published several books of poetry including Chronotopia from Burning Eye Books (2017), Fox Populi from Smokestack Books (2013), We Are Not Stone from Ek Zuban Press (2006) and Why I from Zebra Publishing (2005).{{Cite book|title=Chronotopia|last=Fox|first= Kate|isbn=978-1911570097|location=Portishead|oclc=971522093|date = August 2017}}{{Cite book|title=Fox populi|last=Fox|first=Kate|date=2013|publisher=Smokestack|isbn=9780957172258|location=Middlesbrough|oclc=812687501}}{{Cite book|title=We are not stone|last=Jenni|first=Haukio|date=2007|publisher=Ek Zuban|others=Fox, Kate |isbn=9780955393013|location=Middlesbrough|oclc=751697927}}
Fox has written and performed several live literature and comedy shows including Where There’s Muck There’s Bras, commissioned by the Great Exhibition of the North (2018), two series of The Price of Happiness for BBC Radio 4 (2017 and 2015), Queens of the North, commissioned by BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull 2017 (2017), The Starting Line, commissioned by Great North Run Culture (2012) and Kate Fox News, produced by New Writing North and Arc, Stockton (2010){{Cite news|url=https://getnorth2018.com/previous-events/theres-muck-theres-bras/|title=Where There's Muck, There's Bras — Get North!|work=Get North!|accessdate=18 October 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060ltsx|title=Series 1, The Price of Happiness - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|accessdate=18 October 2018}}
She has been Poet in Residence for several organisations and events including the Yorkshire Festival (2014), Glastonbury Festival (2013), Great North Run (2011) and Saturday Live on Radio 4 (2007-2014).{{Cite web|url=https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/2013-website-poet-in-residence-kate-fox/|title=Glastonbury Festival - 2013 Website Poet In Residence: Kate Fox|last=Digital|first=Pretty Good|website=Glastonbury Festival - 21–25 June 2017|accessdate=18 October 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://greatnorthrunculture.org/NewsArticle37d1.html?ArticleId=62|title=Kate Fox interview - Great North Run Culture|website=greatnorthrunculture.org|accessdate=18 October 2018}}
She is a regular guest on BBC Radio 3's The Verb and has presented BBC Radio 4's Pick of the Week.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bgbpsj|title=BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the Week, Kate Fox|website=BBC|accessdate=18 October 2018}} Other media appearances include commissioned poems for BBC Two's Daily Politics Show (2007), the Great North Run coverage (2011 and 2013), BBC One's Great North Passion (2014) and BBC Radio 4 Front Row's 20th anniversary programme (2018).{{Citation|last=YouTube|title=Kate Fox on Gordon Brown's first 100 days|date=4 October 2007|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEFZ0MpueP0|accessdate=18 October 2018}} She featured in a BBC Two documentary about the Great Exhibition of the North (2018).{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06btg6c|title=Stand-up poet Kate Fox on the unsung heroines of the North, Great Exhibition of the North - BBC Arts|website=BBC|date=22 June 2018 |accessdate=18 October 2018}}
In 2014 she took up a full-time PhD studentship at the University of Leeds looking at class, gender, "Northernness" and stand-up performance and successfully defended her thesis in 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/users/kate-fox|title=Kate Fox {{!}} Arts Council England|website=www.artscouncil.org.uk|accessdate=18 October 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.pci.leeds.ac.uk/news/phd-student-and-stand-up-poet-goes-national/|title=PhD Student and Stand Up Poet Goes National|last=|first=|date=|website=School of Performance and Cultural Industries|archive-url=|archivedate=|accessdate=}} Her concept of "Humitas" in which humour and seriousness are enacted in the same frame at the same time, {{Cite news|url=https://theconversation.com/humitas-a-new-word-for-when-humour-and-seriousness-combine-82556|title=Humitas: a new word for when humour and seriousness combine|last=Fox|first=Kate|work=The Conversation|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en}} has been cited as important to the field of Comedy Studies.{{by whom|date=December 2020}}
Fox regularly hosts events including Northern Stage's season launches, An Evening With Sarah Millican (2017) and An Audience with Julian Norton (2018) as well as An Audience with Jo Brand (Manchester Literature Festival, 2018).{{Cite web|url=http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/how-to-be-champion-an-evening-with-sarah-millican-37744|title=How to be Champion: An Evening with Sarah Millican {{!}} Events {{!}} Manchester Literature Festival|website=www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk|access-date=2018-10-20}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/jo-brand-38515|title=Jo Brand {{!}} Events {{!}} Manchester Literature Festival|website=www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk|access-date=2018-10-20}}
She has performed shows with musicians Union Jill, Simma and the musicians of the All Along the Wall project, including an appearance at the Celtic Connections festival (2010).
She is a Cultural Ambassador for the National Autistic Society.{{Cite web|url=https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/celebrity-supporters.aspx?sc_lang=cy-GB#Kate%20Fox|title=Celebrity supporters - National Autistic Society|website=www.autism.org.uk|accessdate=18 October 2018}} Her work often pays attention to "Northernness", gender, class, place and neurodiversity.
She has promoted live literature events including New Word Order (2004–06), Hyperlexic (2007), Bloomin Words (2012–18) and Ey Up Stand Up (2015–17). She has run poetry projects and workshops for organisations including First Story, Creative Partnerships, the Arvon Foundation and New Writing North.
Publications
=Poetry=
- Why I (2005) Zebra Publishing . {{ISBN|978-0954856427}}.
- We Are Not Stone (2006) Ek Zuban Press. {{ISBN|978-0955393013}}.
- Fox Populi (2013) Smokestack Books. {{ISBN|978-0957172258}}.
- Chronotopia (2017) Burning Eye Books. {{ISBN|978-1911570097}}.
- The Oscillations (2021) Nine Arches Press. {{ISBN|978-1913437077}}.
=Academic=
- Stand Up and Be (En) Countered: Resistance in solo stand-up performance by Northern English women marginalised on the basis of gender, class and regional identity. University of Leeds, 2018.{{Cite thesis|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20722/|title=Stand Up and Be (En) Countered: Resistance in solo stand-up performance by Northern English women marginalised on the basis of gender, class and regional identity.|last=Elizabeth|first=Fox , Kathryn|date=2018-06-25|website=etheses.whiterose.ac.uk|access-date=2018-10-20|type=phd }}
Awards
Andrew Waterhouse Award from New Writing North (2006){{Cite news|url=http://northernwritersawards.com/past-winners/winners-by-year/|title=Winners by year - Northern Writers Awards|work=Northern Writers Awards|accessdate=18 October 2018}}
K Blundell Trust Award from the Society of Authors (2012){{Cite news|url=http://thegarsdaleretreat.co.uk/courses/reading-to-write/|title=Reading to write: How does other text inspire us? - The Garsdale Retreat|work=The Garsdale Retreat|accessdate=18 October 2018}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://katefox.co.uk/ Kate Fox. Mostly a Poet and performer of Poems. Often, not always funny]
{{Authority control}}
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Category:English women comedians
Category:20th-century British women writers
Category:21st-century British women writers
Category:Writers from Bradford
Category:Alumni of Leeds Trinity University
Category:Alumni of Loughborough University