Department of English Literature tutor awarded MBE

Monday, 11 June 2018

Kate Clanchy

The University is delighted to announce that Kate Clanchy, author and Creative Writing tutor in the Department of English Literature, has been made an MBE after helping child refugees at her local school become published poets. 

Kate received the honour for services to literature in schools in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours, in recognition of her work as a Writer in Residence at Oxford Spires Academy.

Over the last nine years, she has nurtured creative talent at the school, whose pupils come from all over the world and where more than 30 languages are spoken. As a result, the school has been hugely successful in poetry competitions, with pupils winning multiple national prizes during the last five years.

During this time, the pupils in Clanchy’s ‘Very Quiet Foreign Girls’ poetry group, many of whom arrived in the UK as refugees, have also created a Ted Hughes Award-nominated radio programme and recently sharing their poetry with thousands on Twitter.

The best of her pupils’ poetry is due to be published in Clanchy’s new anthology, England: Poems from a School, on 14 June. The poems create a portrayal of England as it is experienced by young migrants, and features moving personal stories from the pupils.

Clanchy said: “I was very surprised to be awarded an MBE, but also very pleased. MBEs are for service, and I like to think this one honours my work in schools and so the importance of literature in schools.”

Clanchy, a writer of fiction, poetry and drama, was appointed as a Creative Writing tutor at the University of Reading in January 2018, alongside fellow author Shelley Harris.

They join a long list of authors also teaching at the University, including Dr Conor Carville and Professor Peter Robinson in the Department of English Literature.

For more information, visit our Creative Writing web page.