Jean Sprackland
Jean Sprackland (born 1962) is an English poet and writer, the author of six collections of poetry and three books of essays about place and nature. She has won the Costa Poetry Award and the Portico Prize for Non Fiction, among other accolades.
Biography
Originally from Burton upon Trent, Jean Sprackland studied English and Philosophy at the University of Kent at Canterbury, then taught for a few years before beginning to write poetry at age 30. Since 2015 she has been Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was Chair of the Poetry Archive from 2016 to 2020.
Published works
- Tattoos for Mothers Day (Spike, 1997)
- Hard Water (Cape, 2003)
- Ellipsis: Vol. I (with Sean O'Brien and Tim Cooke; Comma Press, 2005)
- Our Thoughts are Bees: Working with Writers and Schools (with Mandy Coe; Wordplay Press, 2005)
- Tilt (Cape, 2007)
- Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach (Cape, 2012)
- Sleeping Keys (Random House, 2013)
- Green Noise (Cape, 2018)
- These Silent Mansions: A life in graveyards (Cape, 2020)
- Night Vision: In search of the true dark (Cape, 2025)
- Goyle, Chert, Mire (Cape, 2026)
Translated works
- Inclinación. Spanish translation of Tilt (Komorebi Ediciones, Chile, 2018)
Awards and honours
- 1998: Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) shortlist, Tattoos for Mothers Day
- 2003: T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist, Hard Water
- 2003: Whitbread Poetry Award shortlist, Hard Water
- 2004: Next Generation poet
- 2007: Costa Poetry Award, Tilt
- 2007: Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem) shortlist, "The Birkdale Nightingale"
- 2012: Portico Prize for Literature (Non-fiction), Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach
- 2021: PEN Ackerley Prize shortlist, These Silent Mansions: A life in graveyards
- 2021: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
References
- ↑ University, Manchester Metropolitan. "Profile, Manchester Metropolitan University". www2.mmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ↑ "Classic poets' voices go online". BBC. 30 November 2005.[dead link]
- 1 2 "Jean Sprackland's workshop". Guardian Unlimited. 14 January 2008.
Her first collection, Tattoos for Mothers Day, was shortlisted for the Forward prize for best first collection, her second, Hard Water, was shortlisted for both the TS Eliot prize and the Whitbread award for poetry.... She was chosen as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets in 2004.
- ↑ "US poet heads prize shortlist". BBC. 20 October 2003.
American Poet Laureate Billy Collins is among those shortlisted for the TS Eliot Poetry Prize 2003.... Others on the list include Don Paterson ... Jean Sprackland and Lavinia Greenlaw.
[dead link] - ↑
"Poet is pipped to Whitbread award -but she still feels like a winner". Daily Post (Liverpool, England). 7 January 2004.
Jean was among twenty five writers shortlisted for the 2003 Whitbread Prize, for her second collection of poems, Hard Water.
- ↑ "Writer wins national book award". BBC. 3 January 2008.
- ↑ "Activist on list for poetry prize". BBC. 17 July 2007.
- ↑ Farrington, Joshua (23 November 2012). "Hall and Sprackland win Portico Prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- ↑ anderson-jean sprackland and-claire-wilcox-shortlisted-for-pen-ackerley-prize-2021/ "Darran Anderson, Jean Sprackland and Claire Wilcox shortlisted for PEN Ackerley Prize 2021". English Pen. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ↑ "Sprackland, Jean". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
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