Ana Sampson author page

Ana Sampson biography

Ana Sampson is an anthologist and poetry editor. She studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield, where she achieved both a BA and an MA, before beginning a career in publishing PR. Her anthologies include I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and Other Poems You Half-Remember from School, Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much Loved Poems You Half-Remember, Poems to Learn by Heart, Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside, Best-Loved Poems: A Treasury of Verse and Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book.

She is Fierce: Brave, Bold and Beautiful Poems by Women brings together 150 poems by women, with sections on roots and growing up, friendship, love, nature, freedom, mindfulness and joy, fashion, society and body image, protest, courage and resistance, and endings. The paperback edition was published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 6 February 2020.

Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book was published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 2 September 2021 for readers aged 9 to 11. The anthology contains poems inspired by the Natural History Museum, with sections covering subjects including space, Earth, oceans and rivers, birds, dinosaurs, fossils, wildlife, flowers, fungi, insects, explorers and palaeontologists.

Heroes and Villains was published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 12 September 2024 for readers aged 12 and over. The collection was compiled by Ana Sampson and illustrated by Chris Riddell, and it includes poems about legendary figures and mythical beings such as Arthur, Guinevere, the Queen of Sheba, Kubla Khan, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, Mulan, the phoenix, yeti, dragon and kraken.

A Moment of Calm, edited by Ana Sampson, was published in hardback on 16 October 2025. The anthology presents a poem for every day of the year and includes work by poets such as Oscar Wilde, Mary Webb, Edna St Vincent Millay and Robert Louis Stevenson.