Kate Clanchy

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

For the scientist, see Kate Clancy.

Kate Clanchy

MBE
Born1965 (age 57–58)
Glasgow, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)poet, teacher, writer
Known forSlattern, Sammarkand, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me
Parent(s)Michael Clanchy
Joan Clanchy
AwardsEric Gregory Award
Forward Poetry Prize
Scottish First Book of the Year
Orwell Prize for Political Writing

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 in Edinburgh and at the University of Oxford, where she studied English.[3]

Career

She lived in London's East End for several years, before moving to Oxfordshire where she now works as a teacher, journalist and freelance writer.

Her poetry and seven radio plays have been broadcast by BBC Radio. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper; her work appeared in The Scotsman, the New Statesman and Poetry Review. She also writes for radio and broadcasts on the BBC's World Service, Radio 3 and Radio 4.[4] She is a Creative Writing Fellow of Oxford Brookes University and teaches Creative Writing at the Arvon Foundation. She is currently one of the writers-in-residence at the charity First Story. Her poetry has been included in A Book of Scottish Verse (2001)[5] and The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (2005).[6]

Controversy

In August 2021, Clanchy announced that she would rewrite her book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me after passages from it were criticised online for their depictions of ethnic minority, autistic and working class children, including use of terms described by some as "dehumanising", "racist", "anti-Black", and "antisemitic".[7] Detractors included fellow writers Dara McAnulty, Monisha Rajesh, Sunny Singh and Chimene Suleyman. Clanchy was defended by the writers Amanda Craig and Philip Pullman.[8]

Clanchy had initially claimed, incorrectly, that the extracts concerned were "all made up", then argued that the quotes, which she described as "racist",[7][9] had been taken out of context.[10] Clanchy later issued a statement apologising for "overreacting" to the critiques and stating that she "got many things wrong, and welcome[d] the chance to write better, more lovingly".[10][7] Later, however, she seemed to retract her agreement to rewrite, in an article she wrote for Unherd accusing the publisher's sensitivity readers of having "sullied" her memoir.[11]

Honours

Clanchy was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours.[12][10]

Prizes and awards

Bibliography
  • Samarkand. Picador. 1999. ISBN 978-0-330-37194-0.
  • Slattern. Picador. 2001. ISBN 978-0-330-48929-4. 1st edition Chatto & Windus, 1995
  • All The Poems You Need To Say Hello. Picador. 2004. ISBN 978-0-330-43384-6. (editor)
  • Our Cat Henry Comes to the Swings. illustrated Jemima Bird. Oxford University Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-272557-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Newborn. Macmillan UK. 2006. ISBN 978-0-330-41931-4. 1st edition Picador, 2004
  • What Is She Doing Here?: A Refugee's Story. Picador. 2008. ISBN 978-0-330-44382-1.
  • Antigona and Me. Picador. 2009. ISBN 978-0-330-44933-5.
  • Meeting the English. Picador. 2013. ISBN 978-0-330-53527-4.
  • Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. Picador. 2019. ISBN 978-1-5098-4029-8.
  • How to Grow Your Own Poem. Picador. 2020. ISBN 978-1-5290-2469-2.

References
  1. "StackPath". www.nlcs.org.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  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. "StAnza Festival 2017". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  5. Maurice Lindsay, ed. (2001). A Book of Scottish Verse (4th ed.). London: Robert Hale. ISBN 978-0-7090-6901-0.
  6. Lindsay, Maurice; Duncan, Lesley, eds. (2005). "Kate Clanchy". The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7486-2015-9.
  7. 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.
  8. Knight, Lucy (9 August 2021). "Kate Clanchy book may be updated to remove racial stereotypes after criticism". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  9. Clanchy, Kate [@KateClanchy1] (1 December 2011). "Sorry to whinge but - on @goodreads , someone made up a racist quote and said it was in my book. Other reviewers picked it up and repeated it. I've flagged the reviews many times but it does no good. Today I got my first email threat based on it. Is there anything I can do?" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021 – via Twitter.
  10. Campbell, Lucy (10 August 2021). "Kate Clanchy to rewrite memoir amid criticism of 'racist and ableist tropes'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  11. Clanchy, Kate (18 February 2022). "How sensitivity readers corrupt literature". UnHerd. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  12. "No. 62310". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 2018. p. B15.
  13. "Forward Arts Foundation Alumni". Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  14. "Scottish Arts Council - Literature - Book Awards 2009 - Non-fiction". Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  15. Mark Brown (26 November 2013). "Costa book awards 2013: late author on all-female fiction shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  16. "Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me | the Orwell Foundation".
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