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Kate Clanchy

Kate Clanchy MBE (born 1965) is a British poet, freelance writer and teacher.

Education and early life

She was born in 1965 in Glasgow to medieval historian Michael Clanchy and teacher Joan Clanchy (née Milne)[1][2] She was educated at George Watson's College, a private school in Edinburgh and at the University of Oxford, where she studied English.[3]

Career

She lived in the East End of London for several years, before moving to Oxford where she was a fellow of Oxford Brookes University and served as City Poet.[4] She is Writer in Residence for Sanctuary Arts[5] at Mansfield College, Oxford.

In 2021 she wrote an essay about the deaths of both her parents from COVID-19.[6]

Teaching

Clanchy qualified as a teacher in 1989 and has taught since in several different institutions. Her memoir of her teaching experience,Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2020.[7]

From 2009-2019 she combined employment as a teacher and a role as Writer in Residence at Oxford Spires Academy, a multicultural comprehensive school. Noted students included Mukahang Limbu,[8] Shukria Rezaei,[9] and Amineh Abou Kerech.[10] In 2018 she edited an anthology of poems written by her students, England: Poems from a School, which was widely reviewed.[11][12] Over the lockdown period of 2020 Clanchy met on Zoom with her students and published their poems on Twitter where they became popular.[13][14] In 2021 she published a self-help guide to writing poetry, How to Grow Your Own Poem.

Literary work

Clanchy won an Eric Gregory Award in 1995.[15] She published three poetry collections between 1996 and 2004. They won a Forward Prize,[16] the Scottish First Book of the Year (then Saltire Prize) two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards, and a Somerset Maugham Award.[17] In 2008, she moved into non fiction with a memoir about her relationship with her Kosovan neighbour. What is She Doing Here? This was republished as Antigona and Me and won the Writers Guild Award.[18]In 2009 she won both the VS Pritchett and BBC National Short Story Award.[19] This was followed by a novel, Meeting the English,[20] which was shortlisted for the Costa Prize, and a collection of short stories, The Not Dead and the Saved.[21]Clanchy has written and adapted for BBC Radio since 2001 with 12 plays and serials produced, notably Hester, A Little Princess,[22] which starred Adjoa Andoh and Enduring Love. In 2015 her broadcast anthology of her pupils' work, We Are Writing a Poem About Home,[23] was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award.[24] In 2018 she was awarded a Cholmondeley Award.[25] Other work includes:


Controversy

In 2021, Clanchy posted on Twitter encouraging followers to report a Goodreads review of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, stating that they had "made up a racist quote and said it was in my book".[26] In a response published in The Guardian, Monisha Rajesh argued that although the exact quotes in question were not present, similar offensive stereotypes were present throughout the book.[27]

Clanchy was criticised by other authors, including Chimene Suleyman, Monisha Rajesh and Sunny Singh, who received large amounts of abuse in the following months.[28][27][29] An open letter signed by over 950 people from the publishing industry condemned the targeted harassment.[30] Clanchy's publishers, Picador, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing, issued three statements of apology in August 2021 and stated that the books would be rewritten.[27][26] Further statements of apology were made following an interview [31] with Philip Gwyn Jones, Publisher of Picador, in the Daily Telegraph in December 2021.[32]

Clanchy was defended in articles by Sonia Sodha, who stated that 'the strand of anti-racist thinking that is obsessed with the blame and shame all white people should bear for structural discrimination is (so) corrosive to common cause and understanding' [33] and by Clive Davis,[34] Tomiwa Owolade,[35] Shukria Rezaei,[36] Carmen Callil[37] Amanda Craig and Philip Pullman. A group of her former students wrote that they had experienced no safeguarding issues and were 'disempowered and distressed' by the critics' allegations.[38]

In December 2021, Clanchy published an article in Prospect magazine on the personal impact of public cancellation.[39] Consequently, her publisher Picador announced they would no longer publish her books.[29] In an interview for UnHerd, Clanchy said that the apology put out by Pan Macmillan had been made "over her head" and without consulting her.[40] She subsequently wrote an article on sensitivity readers,[41] which continued to be discussed in the following years.[42][43][44][45] especially in the context of the Roald Dahl revision controversy. Clanchy is now published by Swift Press.[46]

Honours and awards

Clanchy was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2010[47] and resigned her fellowship in 2023.[48]

Clanchy was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours.[49] Other awards include:


References

  1. ^ Clanchy, Kate (21 November 2023). "Kate Clanchy: For my mother, the test of a good teacher was how much you gave the children". The Times. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  2. ^ UCL (5 February 2021). "Professor Michael Clanchy FBA (1936–2021)". History. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ Wilby, Peter (5 November 2019). "Teacher who helps migrant children turn pain into prize poetry". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Kate Clanchy, Oxford City Poet at Oxford Brookes University". Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Sanctuary at Mansfield | Mansfield College". www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  6. ^ Clanchy, Kate (6 April 2021). "Letting go: my battle to help my parents die a good death" – via The Guardian.
  7. ^ Winners, Orwell Prize. "Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me | The Orwell Foundation". www.orwellfoundation.com. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  8. ^ Isis Editorial. "The Changing Face of Poetry | The Isis". Isis Magazine.
  9. ^ Brothers, Caroline. "Poetry helps Afghan girl find her path in England". UNHCR NEWS. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  10. ^ UN News (14 March 2021). "First Person: Poetry and the pain of loss and leaving; a voice from Syria | UN News". news.un.org.
  11. ^ Noel-Tod, Jeremy (21 November 2023). "Review: England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clancy — when students made poetry their top sport". Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  12. ^ Kellaway, Kate (10 July 2018). "England: Poems from a School, edited by Kate Clanchy – review" – via The Guardian.
  13. ^ "Unmute: Young Voices from Lockdown". 26 August 2020.
  14. ^ Sanderson, Imogen. "Young British Poets are Encapsulating the Spirit of Lockdown". The Economist. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  15. ^ a b "Eric Gregory Awards - The Society of Authors". 8 May 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  16. ^ Alumni, Forward Prizes. "Forward Alumni 1992-Present". Forward Arts Foundation. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  17. ^ a b Allumni, Somerset Maugham (8 May 2020). "Somerset Maugham Awards - The Society of Authors". Society of Authors. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Writers' Guild Awards archive". Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  19. ^ a b Clanchy, Kate. "The Not-Dead and the Saved". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk.
  20. ^ Dunmore, Helen (25 April 2013). "Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy – review". The Guardian.
  21. ^ Rakoff, Joanna (4 July 2015). "The Not-Dead and the Saved – Kate Clanchy's first short-story collection". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  22. ^ Hepworth, David (4 February 2017). "This week's best radio: Trevor Nelson, film soundtracks and gothic princesses". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  23. ^ Clanchy, Kate. "BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, We Are Writing a Poem about Home". BBC. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  24. ^ Award, Ted Hughes. "The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  25. ^ a b "Cholmondeley Awards - The Society of Authors". 8 May 2020.
  26. ^ a b Rajesh, Monisha (13 August 2021). "Pointing out racism in books is not an 'attack' – it's a call for industry reform". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  27. ^ a b c Campbell, Lucy (10 August 2021). "Kate Clanchy to rewrite memoir amid criticism of 'racist and ableist tropes'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  28. ^ Hinsliff, Gaby (18 June 2022). "The book that tore publishing apart: 'Harm has been done, and now everyone's afraid'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  29. ^ a b Hinsliff, Gaby (18 June 2022). "The book that tore publishing apart: 'Harm has been done, and now everyone's afraid'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  30. ^ "Book industry figures condemn abuse of Clanchy critics in open letter". The Bookseller.
  31. ^ Allfree, Claire (26 November 2021). "The crisis at the heart of literary fiction". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  32. ^ "Picador publisher Gwyn Jones apologises after Clanchy remarks reignite criticism". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  33. ^ Sodha, Sonia (23 January 2022). "The hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  34. ^ Davis, Clive (15 November 2023). "This year's Edinburgh Fringe is for locals. Maybe it's better that way". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  35. ^ Owolade, Tomiwa (12 September 2021). "The problem with white saviours". UnHerd. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  36. ^ Rezaei, Shukria (15 November 2023). "I do have 'almond-shaped eyes'. My teacher Kate Clanchy described me beautifully". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  37. ^ "Virago founder Callil quits Society of Authors over Clanchy response". The Bookseller. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  38. ^ "Clanchy students defend author over safeguarding criticism". The Bookseller. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  39. ^ "Ostracised, disinvited, rescinded: what it's like to get cancelled". dlv.prospect.gcpp.io. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  40. ^ Kate Clanchy: "My life's work has been taken away", retrieved 15 November 2023
  41. ^ Clanchy, Kate (18 February 2022). "How sensitivity readers corrupt literature". UnHerd. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  42. ^ Abrams, Rebecca (25 March 2022). "Sense and sensitivity: why books need to unsettle us". Financial Times. Financial Times. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  43. ^ Adorney, Jonathon (17 November 2023). "Is Disney's new movie Wish a 'woke' disaster?". Restoring America. Washington Examiner.
  44. ^ Vegard Hagesæther, Per (23 April 2023). "Publishing's Maligned Helpers". www.aftenposten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). AftenP{osten. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  45. ^ Goldszal, Clémentine (29 January 2023). "The rise of sensitivity readers in the literary world: A sign of inclusivity or a threat to free speech?". Le Monde.fr. Le Monde.
  46. ^ "Kate Clanchy". Swift Press. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  47. ^ https://rsliterature.org/fellows/kate-clanchy/ [dead link]
  48. ^ Sanderson, David (5 February 2024). "Inside the row tearing the Royal Society of Literature apart". The Times. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  49. ^ "No. 62310". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 2018. p. B15.
  50. ^ a b c "Forward Arts Foundation Alumni". Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  51. ^ a b Clanchy, Kate. "Contemporary Writers". British Council Contemporary Writers. British Counchy. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  52. ^ "Scottish Arts Council - Literature - Book Awards 2009 - Non-fiction". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  53. ^ "Scottish Arts Council - Literature - Book Awards 2009 - Non-fiction". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  54. ^ "Scottish Arts Council - Literature - Book Awards 2009 - Non-fiction". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  55. ^ "V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize". Royal Society of Literature. 10 September 2023.
  56. ^ Mark Brown (26 November 2013). "Costa book awards 2013: late author on all-female fiction shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  57. ^ "2015 – The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk.
  58. ^ "Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me | the Orwell Foundation".

External links