Alice Oswald

Poet Alice Oswald was trained as a classicist at New College, University of Oxford. Revered as a major poet in her native England, her honors include prestigious awards like the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Oswald is the author of 11 collections of poetry. Her first collection of poetry, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile (1996), received a Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. She often works in book-length projects and is known for her interests in gardening, ecology, and music. Her second book, Dart (2002), was the outcome of years of primary and secondary research into the history, environment, and community along the River Dart in Devon, England. She followed those collections with Woods, etc. (2005), winner of a Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Weeds and Wild Flowers (2009), illustrated by Jessica Greenman; A Sleepwalk on the Severn (2009); and Memorial (2011), a reworking of Homer’s Iliad that has received high critical praise for its innovative approach and stunning imagery, which won the 2013 Warwick Prize for writing. Oswald was the first poet to win the prize. Her other books include Falling Awake (2016), Nobody (2019); and A Short Story of Falling (2020). Oswald has also edited an anthology of nature poetry titled The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet (2006).
 
Oswald’s many honors and awards include an Eric Gregory Award, an Arts Foundation Award for Poetry, a Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and a Ted Hughes Award. In 2019, she became the first woman to be appointed as Oxford University Professor of Poetry, a four-year tenure.

 She lives in Devon with her husband and three children.