Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was Poet Laureate 2009–2019. She was the first female poet laureate, the first Scottish-born poet and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.
Her poetry has received many awards, including the T. S. Eliot Prize 2005 for Rapture (Picador Poetry), as well as Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and the PEN Pinter prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. Her many collections include: Mean Time (Anvil Press, 1993), shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize; The World’s Wife (Anvil Press / Picador Poetry, 1999), shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize; Love Poems (Picador Poetry, 2009); The Bees (Picador Poetry, 2011), shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and winner of the Costa Poetry Award; and Sincerity (Picador Poetry, 2018). Her writing for children includes Queen Munch and Queen Nibble, The Skipping-Rope Snake and The Tear Thief. She was Chair of judges of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2012. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. In 2021, she was awarded the international lifetime achievement award the Golden Wreath for her achievements in poetry. Author photo © Jemimah Kuhfeld
