Carol.Ann Duffy author page

Carol Ann Duffy biography

Carol Ann Duffy is a British poet and playwright. She was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in May 2009, becoming the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position since its creation in 1668. Duffy studied philosophy at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 1977.

Duffy’s poetry collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987), The Other Country (1990), Mean Time (1993), and The World’s Wife (1999). Her work for children includes Meeting Midnight (1999), The Oldest Girl in the World (2000), Queen Munch and Queen Nibble (2001), and The Hat (2007). Duffy has also written plays and edited several anthologies.

Duffy’s poetry has received numerous awards. Mean Time won the Whitbread Poetry Award in 1993. Rapture (2005) received the T. S. Eliot Prize. She was awarded the Costa Poetry Award for The Bees in 2011. Duffy was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2015 for services to poetry.

Her children’s book The Lost Happy Endings (2006), illustrated by Jane Ray, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Duffy’s poetry is studied widely in UK schools and appears on several national curricula. She served as Poet Laureate until 2019.