Hannah Lowe | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 (age 48–49) Ilford, Essex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | University of Sussex;Newcastle University |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Notable work | Chick (2013);Long Time, No See (2015);The Kids (2021) |
| Awards | Costa Book Award for poetry |
| Website | hannahlowe |
Hannah LoweFRSL (born 1976) is a British writer, known for her collection of poetryChick (2013), her family memoirLong Time, No See (2015) and her research into the historicising of theHMTEmpire Windrush and postwar Caribbean migration to Britain.[1][2][3][4] Her 2021 bookThe Kids won theCosta Book of the Year award.[5]
Lowe was born inIlford, Essex, in 1976. She studied American Literature at theUniversity of Sussex, and has a master's degree in Refugee Studies, subsequently completing a PhD in Creative Writing atNewcastle University.[6] She taught English Literature at a London sixth form, and went on to teach Creative Writing atOxford Brookes University, Kingston University. She now lectures atBrunel University.[1]
Lowe began writing poetry at the age of 29 after herJamaican-Chinese father died and her English mother had a stroke, later reflecting: "I had been suppressing a lot of grief over a sustained period of time and poetry... opened a door on that pain. I found that I could revisit the past in my poems, and contain it, or alter it even."
Following a suggestion byJohn Glenday at a course in 2010, Lowe began to write about her father — who had sailed from Jamaica to Britain on the SSOrmonde in 1947[7][8] — and this led to her debut poetry collectionChick, published byBloodaxe Books in 2013.[3] This work was shortlisted for theForward and Fenton Adelburgh First Collection Prizes. In September 2014, thePoetry Book Society included Lowe in its list ofNext Generation Poets, published each decade.[4] In 2015,Chick won the Michael Murphy Memorial Award for Best First Collection.
Lowe's family memoirLong Time, No See was published by Periscope in July 2015 and was featured onBBC Radio 4'sBook of the Week.[1][9] Lowe citesGerard Manley Hopkins,Anne Sexton, andMark Doty as influences for her work.[3]
Lowe's 2018 chapbookThe Neighbourhood,[10] published by Out-Spoken in 2018, is a social commentary on communities and gentrification that emerged from her role as poet-in-residence atKeats House,[11] London. In 2020, she won aCholmondeley Award from theSociety of Authors. Her collection,The Kids, was published by Bloodaxe in 2021.[12] It was shortlisted for the 2021T. S. Eliot Prize.[13]
Lowe's 2021 book of sonnets, titledThe Kids, was based on her 10 years of experience teaching in an inner-city London sixth-form centre,City and Islington College, during the 2000s,[14] as well as drawing on her own experiences as a teenager and as a mother.[15] She said in an interview inThe Guardian: "I was trying to destabilise that relationship between the teacher and student – the idea of the teacher being the figure with knowledge to impart, and the student as the passive receptacle. It was never like that in the classroom for me."[16]The Irish Times said that "the power of Lowe's use of the sonnet feels akin to controlling a classroom – the form acts to hold and strain against the blustering energy of the students and the teacher.The Kids is an honest and intelligent book."[17]The Kids won theCosta Book Award for Poetry in 2021[18] and was later chosen as the overallCosta Book of the Year for 2021,[19] with chair of judgesReeta Chakrabarti describing it as "a book to fall in love with – it's joyous, it's warm and it's completely universal. It's crafted and skilful but also accessible."[20][21]
In May 2022, Lowe's two new poetry chapbooks –Old Friends andRock, Bird, Butterfly – were published by Hercules Editions.[22]
Lowe was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 2022.[23]
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