Clare Shaw

Clare Shaw
Born	(1972-12-30) 30 December 1972 Burnley, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Poet
Genre	Poetry
Subject	Ecopoetry, self-harm, neurodiversity, relationships, human psychology

Clare Elaine Shaw (born 30 December 1972) is a British poet, author, educator, disability advocate, and environmental activist. They are the author of four poetry collections published by Bloodaxe Books: Straight Ahead (2006), Head On (2012), Flood (2018), and Towards a General Theory of Love (2022).

Early life and education

Shaw was born in Burnley, Lancashire on 30 December 1972, the youngest of six. They attended St Hilda's Roman Catholic School and the University of Liverpool.

Career

Prior to publication, Shaw was a regular guest poet at Carol Ann Duffy and Friends at the Manchester Royal Exchange. They were awarded the Arvon Jerwood Young Poets' Award in 2002, and mentored by George Szirtes as part of this scheme.

Their first book, Straight Ahead, was published in 2006. One reviewer noted the emergence of a "raw, new poetic voice," but called for better editing. An in-depth article in Magma analysed a poem from this collection alongside other breakup poems that metaphorically explore relationships as living and dying bodies.

Shaw's second collection, Head On, was published in 2012.

Their third collection, Flood (2018), includes poems about the 2015–16 Great Britain and Ireland floods, which destroyed Shaw's adopted home of Hebden Bridge. With poems like "Catastrophic Devastation; Damage Complete", Shaw became part of a growing ecopoetry movement. The collection also touches upon child abuse and sexual abuse framed through folk tales, and upon survival, whether in psychiatric wards or relationships, and here the floods are often used as metaphors.

Shaw's fourth collection, Towards a General Theory of Love (2022) was a Poetry Society Book of the Year as nominated by Carole Bromley. In this collection, Shaw continues their exploration of themes of neurodiversity and human psychology. The title of the collection references the well-known book on human emotions, A General Theory of Love, and unusually for a poetry collection, the book has been reviewed in scholarly psychology journals. One reviewer praises Shaw's use of Harry Harlow's study of attachment in baby monkeys, which is woven into many of the poems in the collection, "viscerally conjuring up the larger-than-life character of Monkey, who is the subject and/or narrator of many of the poems."

Their fifth collection, I Know What I Saw, is forthcoming, also with Bloodaxe Books.

Shaw is currently collaborating with other creatives on The Book of Bogs, a forthcoming anthology on climate change and the rewilding of wetlands, which will be published by Little Toller Books and Bluemoose Books.

Shaw co-authors a Substack with the poet Kim Moore entitled Shaw & Moore, which features content including 'poetry, essays, writing tips and exercises', as well as privileged information on the poetry industry in the United Kingdom.

Awards and recognition

Shaw has won and been nominated for prizes, including the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem and a Northern Writer's Award. Their work has been set to music, illustrated and staged. They wrote the libretto for community opera Daylighting, which premiered at the Royal Academy of Music and won an Ivor Novello Award for Community and Engagement. Their work has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4's The Verb and Poetry Please.

In 2021, they were appointed Carbon Landscape Poet in Residence by Manchester Literature Festival and Lancashire Wildlife Trust, and commissioned to write poems connected to the landscape. Shaw judged the Manchester Poetry Prize in 2023, the Winchester Poetry Prize in 2024, and the Ted Hughes Award in 2019. Shaw was co-director of the Kendal Poetry Festival from 2019 to 2022, and founder of the Wonky Animals poetry collective and the Lost Things Project. They tutor at the Arvon Foundation.

Activism and advocacy

Shaw is a mental health advocate having published resources on mental health and worked to deliver training, through their own business and through organisations including London-based homeless charity St Mungo's. They also advocate for accessibility in writing, working with the Royal Literary Fund to deliver literacy training. They work in schools as a visiting tutor for organisations including Wordsworth Grasmere, and with members of the wider community, including asylum seekers.

Personal life

Shaw is non-binary and neurodivergent. They live in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

Bibliography

Poetry collections

• Straight Ahead. (Bloodaxe Books, 2006).
• Head On (Bloodaxe Books, 2012).
• Flood (Bloodaxe Books, 2018).
• Towards a General Theory of Love (Bloodaxe Books, 2018).

Poetry anthologies and collaborative works

Shaw's writing features in the following publications.

• Out of Fashion: An Anthology of Poems, ed. Carol Ann Duffy (Faber & Faber, 2005).
• Forward Prize Book of Poetry 2007 (Faber & Faber, 2006).
• A Twist of Malice: Uncomfortable Poems by Older Women, ed. Joy Howard (Grey Hen Press, 2008).
• Jubilee Lines: 60 Poets for 60 Years, ed. Carol Ann Duffy (Faber & Faber, 2012).
• Seeing Poetry, with illustrator Louise Crosby
• Twenty Poems to Bless Your Marriage: And One to Save It, ed. Roger Housdon (Shambhala Publications Inc, 2012).
• Project Boast, ed. Rachel Bentham, Alyson Hallett (Triarchy Press, 2018).
• When All This is Over, ed. Bob Horne (Calder Valley Poetry, 2020).
• We Are the Change-Makers: Poems Supporting Drop The Disorder!, ed. Jo Watson (PCCS Books, 2020).
• 100 Queer Poems, ed. Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan (Vintage Books, 2022).
• The Meeting: Reading and Writing Through John Clare, ed. Simon Kövesi (John Clare Society, 2022).
• The National Trust Book of Nature Poems, ed. Deborah Alma, (National Trust Books, 2023).
• Ten Poems for a Wedding, ed. Kathryn Bevis (Candlestick Press, 2023).
• Festival in a Book: A Celebration of Wenlock Poetry Festival, ed. Lisa Lefroy (904 Press, 2023).

Literary criticism and pedagogy

Shaw's writing features in the following publications.

• Writing Your Self, ed. John Killick, Myra Schneider (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009).
• In Their Own Words: Contemporary Poets on Their Poetry, ed. George Szirtes and Helen Ivory (Salt Publishing, 2012).
• Why I Write Poetry, ed. Ian Humphreys (Nine Arches Press, 2012).
• Poetry Projects to Make and Do, ed. Deborah Alma (Nine Arches Press, 2023).

On mental health: books and resources

Shaw's writing features in the following publications.

• Encountering Feminism: Intersections Between Feminism and the Person-Centred Approach, ed. Gillian Proctor, Mary Beth Napier (PCCS Books, 2004).
• New Approaches to Preventing Suicide: A Manual for Practitioners, ed. David Duffy, Tony Ryan (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004).
• Our Encounters with Self-Harm, with Charley Baker, Frank Biley (PCCS Books, 2013).
• Otis Doesn't Scratch, with Tamsin Walker (PCCS Books, 2014).
• Searching for a Rose Garden: Challenging psychiatry, Fostering Mad Studies, ed. Jasna Russo, Angela Sweeney (PCCS Books, 2016).
• Supporting the Mental Health of Children in Care, ed. Jeune Guishard Pine OBE, Gail Coleman-Oluwabusola, Suzanne McCall (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017).
• Drop the Disorder! Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis, ed. Jo Watson (PCCS Books, 2019).
• #MeToo: Counsellors and psychotherapists speak about sexual violence and abuse, ed. Deborah A. Lee, Emma Palmer (PCCS Books, 2020).
• First Steps in Counselling (5th Edition): An Introductory Companion, Pete Sanders, Paula J Williams, Andy Rogers (PCCS Books, 2021)