Welcome to Clare’s Poetry Circle

Hi, I’m Clare Pollard. I’ve been a poet all my life - I wrote my first poetry book, The Heavy-Petting Zoo in sixth form, and it came out in 1998. Since then I’ve (mainly) made a living as a freelance writer, trying my hand at everything including non-fiction, fiction (for children and adults), plays, radio, translation, editing, judging, teaching. I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Doctor of Letters. But I always come back to poetry - I'm currently artistic director of the Winchester Poetry Festival and my next book will be my sixth full collection with Bloodaxe, Lives of the Female Poets, coming in 2025.

I’ve always loved writing literary criticism, and review regularly for various poetry magazines and The Idler. But having let my Wordpress blog fade away a bit over the last few years I want to get back into the habit of regularly blogging here - this is a place to put my hot-takes on poetry debates, in-depth read-alongs of classic poems, and general poetic musings.

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