Clarke, Gillian

(1937- )

   Welsh poet and playwright, she read English at University College, Cardiff, then worked for the BBC in London, but now lives in Talgarreg in Dyfed, a strongly Welsh-speaking area. She runs various creative writing courses up to master's level. She has given poetry readings and lectures in Europe and the United States and her work has been translated into many languages. She was assistant editor of The Anglo-Welsh Review in 1971 and editor from 1975 to 1984. Her poems were first published in Poetry Wales in 1970. Her work taps into Welsh myth and legend and her own sense of womanhood. Some of her main publications: Letter from a Far Country, 1982. Selected Poems, 1985. Letting in the Rumour, 1989. The King of Britain's Daughter, 1993. Collected Poems, 1997. Clarke says "On the Train" was written in October 1999 while traveling home to Wales the day after the Paddington rail crash (from her website). Some of her other poems: "Baby-Sitting," "Border," "East Moors," "Foghorns," "Glass," "Letter from a Far Country," "St. Thomas's Day," "Suicide on Pentwyn Bridge," "The Hare," "The WaterDiviner."

   Sources: CREW Welsh Writers Online (http://www.swan.ac.uk/english/crew/index.htm). Gillian Clarke Welcome Page (http://www.gillianclarke.co.uk). Parents: An Anthology of Poems by Women Writers. Myra Schneider and Dilys Wood, eds. Enitharmon Press, 2000. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. Michael Schmidt, ed. The Harvill Press, 1999. The New Exeter Book of Riddles. Kevin Crossley-Holland and Lawrence Sail, eds. Enitharmon Press, 1999. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.