Catherine Smith

Catherine Smith writes prose, poetry and drama. Nineteen of her short stories (several prize-winning) have been published in the UK, and two have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4's 'Afternoon Reading' slot. Her poems have been widely published in journals and newspapers, including The Rialto, Smiths Knoll, Magma and Poetry London, and in various poetry anthologies, including The Forward Book of Poetry for 2004 and 2005 and in The Brighton Book.

She has been a prize-winner in the poetry collections category of The New Writer annual awards four times, and has won prizes in regional and national competitions. Her first short poetry collection, The New Bride, was short-listed for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2001, and her first full collection, The Butcher's Hands, was awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In January 2004 she was voted "one of the top ten poets to have emerged in the UK in the last ten years" by Mslexia magazine, and in June 2004 she was listed as one of the 'Next Generation' poets by the Poetry Book Society/Guardian - "the twenty most exciting poets to have published a first collection in the last ten years" - by a panel chaired by the poet Laureate, Andrew Motion. She teaches creative writing for the University of Sussex.

Catherine Smith reads from Identity Parade: