Carol Ann Duffy

Poet, playwright and freelance writer Carol Ann Duffy was born on 23 December 1955 in Glasgow and read philosophy at Liverpool university. She is a former editor of the poetry magazine ambit and is a regular reviewer and broadcaster. She moved from London to Manchester in 1996 and began to lecture in poetry at Manchester metropolitan university. Her papers were acquired by the Robert W. Woodruff library of Emory university in 1999, and in October 2000 she was awarded a grant of 75,000 over a five-year period by the national endowment for science, technology and the arts.

Her poetry collections include standing female nude (1985), winner of a Scottish arts council award; selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham award; the other country (1990); mean time (1993), which won the Whitbread poetry award and the forward poetry prize (best poetry collection of the year); and the world's wife (1999). A feminine gospel (2002) is a celebration of the female condition. The good child's guide to rock n roll (2003) is her latest collection for children. In out of fashion (2004) she creates a vital dialogue between classic and contemporary poets over the two arts of poetry and fashion.

Carol Ann Duffy is also an acclaimed playwright, and has had plays performed at the liverpool playhouse and the alameda theatre in London. Her plays include take my husband (1982), cavern of dreams (1984), little women, big boys (1986) and loss (1986), a radio play.

She received an Eric Gregory award in 1984 and a Cholmondeley award in 1992 from the society of authors, the Dylan Thomas award from the poetry society in 1989 and a Lannan literary award from the lanai foundation (USA) in 1995. She was awarded an OBE in 1995, a CBE in 2001 and became a fellow of the royal society of literature in 1999.

Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester. Her latest collection of poetry is rapture (2005), winner of the 2006 T. S. Eliot prize.