Fiona Ruth Sampson, Born 1963 MBEFRSL[1] is a British poet, writer, editor, translator and academic who was the first woman editor of Poetry Review since Muriel Spark. She received a MBE for services to literature in 2017.
Sampson has been publishing poetry since 1996 and some of her earlier work is held at The Poetry Archive.[3] Her work has been translated into several languages and her own translations include the work of Jaan Kaplinski and Amir Or. Her themes are faith and landscape.[4][5] Her first full collection, Folding the Real was published in 2001 and followed by The Distance Between Us (2005), a novel in verse. Her poem Trumpeldor Beach was shortlisted for the 2006 Forward Prize. Her later poetry collections include Common Prayer (2007); shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, Rough Music (2010)[4] shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot Prize, and Forward Poetry Prize, and Coleshill (2013).[6] Her eighth collection, Come Down (2019) was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year (Poetry).[7]
From 2005 to 2012, Sampson was the editor of Poetry Review, the oldest and most widely read poetry journal in the UK.[8] She was the first woman editor of the journal since Muriel Spark (1947–49). During this time she published a critical anthology A Century of Poetry Review (Carcanet, 2009), a writing manual Poetry Writing: The Expert Guide (2009), a volume of lectures, Music Lessons, and Beyond the Lyric: a map of contemporary British poetry (Penguin Random House, 2012), a study of the poetry mainstream in the late 20th Century.[9]
In 2013 Sampson became Professor of Poetry at the University of Roehampton and the Director of the Roehampton Poetry Centre.[5] She created the Roehampton Prize for Poetry[10] and chaired the judges in 2015 and 2017. Here she founded[5]Poem,[11] a quarterly international review. 19 issues were published between 2013-2018. The centre along with Roehampton's Creative Writing program was closed in 2022.[12]
Literary Criticism and Biographyedit
Sampson is interested in the Romantics. Her Faber Poet to Poet edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley was published in 2012. Starlight Wood: Walking Back to the Romantic Countryside,[13] a collection of 'Romantic' walks was published by Corsair in 2022. In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein.[14][15] was a finalist for the Biographers' Club Slightly Foxed prize.[16] This was followed by Two-Way Mirror: The life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2021) [17] which was longlisted for the Biographers International Organisation Plutarch Prize 2021,[18]
Sampson is a former musician and has worked with composers, including commissions with Sally Beamish,[20]Stephen Goss[21] and Philip Grange. In 2016 she published a study of musical forms and poetry, Lyric Cousins: Music l Form in Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).[22]
Sampson has published scholarly works and works for general readers on the subject of writing and health care (below).
^"British Council Biog". contemporarywriters.com. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
^"Fiona Sampson's workshop". The Guardian. London. 2 July 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
^ abPadel, Ruth (27 August 2010). "Rough Music by Fiona Sampson". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
^ abc"The strength of Fiona Sampson". The Independent. 9 March 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
^O'Brien, Sean (23 August 2013). "Coleshill by Fiona Sampson – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
^"Wales Book of the Year 2021 Shortlist". Literature Wales.
^Lea, Richard (27 February 2012). "Poetry Review editor Fiona Sampson resigns". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
^"Beyond the Lyric: A Map of Contemporary British Poetry". The Independent. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
^"The Roehampton Poetry Centre at the University of Roehampton is delighted to announce the winner of the fifth annual Roehampton Poetry Prize". Roehampton University. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Sampson, Fiona. "Taylor and Francis online". Poem: International English Language Quarterly Journal.
^Yeomans, Emma (11 March 2024). "Roehampton University scraps classics, philosophy, drama and creative writing courses". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Nicolson, Adam (25 August 2022). "In the footsteps of the Romantic poets". The Spectator. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
^Smith, Dinitia (3 August 2018). "The Woman Who Created a Monster". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
^Cooke, Rachel (7 January 2018). "In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein review – a life after deaths". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
^Foxed, Slightly (May 2018). "Bart van Es wins The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize for The Cut Out Girl".
^Goodwin, Daisy (7 March 2024). "Two-Way Mirror by Fiona Sampson, review — shining a light on Elizabeth Barrett Browning". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
^"2021 Plutarch Award Longlist". Biographers International Organization. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
^Mitrić, Milanka (1 November 2018). ""Evropski atlas lirike" Čarlsu Simiću". Glas Srpske (in Serbian). Retrieved 8 March 2024.
^"On This Shining Night - British Music Society". 24 June 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
^"Rough Music University of Sussex". openresearch.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
^Balmer, Josephine (27 February 2017). "A muse is for sharing: Fiona Sampson's Lyric Cousins". New Statesman. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
External linksedit
Official website
Profile at the British Council
Poeboes Podcast Interview with Fiona Sampson by André Naffis