Jane Draycott - Life and Career

Life and Career

Draycott was born in London in 1954 and studied at King's College London and Bristol University. Her pamphlet No Theatre (Smith/Doorstop) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 1997, and her first full collection Prince Rupert's Drop (1999), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. In 2002, she was the winner of the Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry and in 2004 she was nominated as one of the Poetry Book Society's 'Next Generation' poets. Her other books include Christina the Astonishing (with Lesley Saunders and Peter Hay, 1998) and Tideway (illustrated by Peter Hay, 2002), both from Two Rivers Press. She was previously poet in residence at Henley's River and Rowing museum. She lectures in creative writing at Oxford University and the University of Lancaster. She is a mentor on the Crossing Borders creative writing system, which was set up by the British Council and Lancaster University. Her latest work is her first translation - the 14th century Middle English poem Pearl - in which she aims at a fluid and echoing character which loosens some of the original end-stopped pulse.