Jennifer Copley

Jennifer Copley lives in Barrow-in-Furness in her grandmother’s house, a large draughty Victorian pile that has informed much of her poetry. She is the author of 3 full collections of poetry and 6 pamphlets including Ice (Smith/Doorstop 2002) Unsafe Monuments (Arrowhead 2006) Beans in Snow (Smokestack 2009) Living Daylights (Happenstance 2011) and Sisters (Smokestack 2013). Her work has appeared in The Rialto, The North, PN Review, the Independent on Sunday, the Forward Prize Anthology and GCSE Poetry Unseen revision papers.

She has won prizes in several poetry competitions including 1st prizes in the Faber/Ottaker and the Mirehouse, 2nd prize in the Cardiff Academi, 3rd prize in the Bridport, shortlisted twice for the Strokestown Prize.

U.A. Fanthorpe has described her work as ‘urgent, visceral, written out of a fierce commitment to truth’. Carol Rumens says, ‘There is a Chagall-like, magical-realist quality to Copley’s delicate shape-shifting’ and W.N. Herbert comments that her work is ‘quietly life-enhancing, full of real rewards and surprising consolations’.

Her latest collection, Some Couples, was published by Happenstance in 2017.

In 2018 she won the Cinnamon Pamphlet Competition, Being Haunted, which will be coming out in 2019.