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Yvonne Reddick

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Yvonne Reddick
Born1986 (age 38–39)[1]
Glasgow, Scotland
OccupationPoet
Academic
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
EducationPhD, MA, BA
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
University of York
University of Cambridge
GenrePoetry
Notable worksBurning Season
Spikenard
Translating Mountains
Notable awardsThe Laurel Prize for Best UK First Collection, 2023
Mslexia Magazine Pamphlet Competition, 2017
Website
yvonnereddick.org

Yvonne Reddick is a Glasgow-born writer, editor, ecopoetry scholar, filmmaker and climber based in Manchester.[1][2] She is the author of four poetry pamphlets, including the Mslexia Women's Pamphlet Competition-winning Translating Mountains, published by Seren in 2017, and a 2019 Laureate's Choice Spikenard, published by The Poetry Business, and has published Burning Season, the Laurel Prize 2023 Best UK First Collection, with Bloodaxe Books.[3]

Early life

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Reddick, who was born in Glasgow to a petroleum engineer father and a mother who worked in seismology in 1986, grew up in Aberdeen, Kuwait City and South East England.[4] She went on to study English at the University of Cambridge, where she worked with Dr. Robert Macfarlane. She then got an MA at the University of York, and PhD at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Bate.[5] Moving forward, an Early Career Fellowship helped begin her career at Warwick, where, collaborating with colleagues from chemistry and law, she then founded the Environmental Studies Research Network, funded by the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) and EPSRC. Reddick was later appointed Visiting Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Centre for the Study of International Slavery.[6]

Reddick's father passed away in 2015 following an accident while hiking in the Scottish Highlands in 2015. This event pushed her to explore mountaineers' fascination of heights through poetry, and a resulting set of poems was a winning entry in the Northern Writers' Awards 2016, selected by Patience Agbabi. It also paved the way for her winning a Hawthornden Fellowship for 2017.[7] Similar poems also make up for a chunk of poems in her debut poetry collection, Burning Season.[4]

Work

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Much like Bate's work in the field of British environmental literary criticism, Reddick focusses on British environmental poetry, especially the work of Ted Hughes.[5] This has led to the publication of Ted Hughes: Environmentalist and Ecopoet with Palgrave Macmillan in 2017, called "the first book devoted entirely to Hughes as an environmental activist and writer."[8] She was later commended in the 2017 National Poetry Competition, organised by the Poetry Society, for her poem 'Muirburn'.[9] She also won that year's Peggy Poole Award and, as part of it, was mentored by Deryn Rees-Jones.[10]

Reddick has published work in such journals as Ambit,[11][12] The Guardian, PN Review, The Clearing,[13] Agenda, The North,[9] The Poetry Review,[14] and And Other Poems.[15] Through her ecopoetry publications, she has been noted as "an academic expert on poetry, landscape and the environment",[7] and won several awards, including a Northern Writers' Award for memoir and poetry, and a place on the 2017–18 Jerwood/Arvon mentoring scheme.[9] Apart from Ted Hughes's work, she has also published commentary on the works of Fiona Benson, David Harsent,[16] Paul Lomami Tchibamba,[17] Keith Sagar,[18] Alice Oswald,[19] John Kinsella,[20] Nancy Campbell,[21] and more.

In 2019, Reddick was awarded the first prize of £500 in the Ambit Poetry Competition for her poem 'In the Burning Season', a "wild fiery folkloric poem", selected by the poet Liz Berry.[22] In 2020, she published Poetry, Grief and Healing, "a collection of moving and uplifting poems by leading poets", with Dog Horn Publishing;[23] and following her book about Hughes as an ecopoet, she published another, Anthropocene Poetry: Place, Environment, and Planet, with Palgrave Macmillan in 2023. The same year, Reddick also published her debut collection, Burning Season, with Bloodaxe Books, which won the 2023 Best UK First Collection for Ecopoetry at the Laurel Prize ceremony[24] and was shortlisted for the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2023.[25] Writing for Harriet Books, Rebecca Morgan Frank noted that "[d]estruction and care coexist throughout" the collection, calling it a reflection of "our human contradictions."[26] The collection's title poem 'Burning Season' was awarded the third prize in the Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry 2022.

A documentary film titled Searching for Snow Hares[27] and written, presented and narrated by Reddick was produced in 2023-2024.[28] She worked on this six year long project with the Bristol-based filmmaker, photographer and biologist Aleksander Domanski,[29] who directed and produced the film. It was shortlisted for the British Mountaineering Council's Women in Adventure Film Competition 2023.[30] A recent report says the duo are "filming unique wildlife in California" as part of a new project, titled Forest Fires and Snowshoe Hares, to study animals "coping with climate change."[2]

In 2024, Reddick was among a number of writers to urge the government to set up a dedicated writing centre for the North at Newcastle's Bolbec Hall.[31][32]

Previously, she has also edited two autumn issues of Magma: with Adam Lowe, Magma 75 – "Loss";[23] and with Maya Chowdhry and Cheryl Moskowitz, Magma 81 – "Anthropocene".[33]

Books

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Reddick has published a total of four pamphlets and a full-length poetry collection.

Full-length Collection

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  • Burning Season (Bloodaxe, 2023) ISBN 9781780376455

Pamphlets

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Critical Works

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  • Anthropocene Poetry: Place, Environment, and Planet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) ISBN 9783031393884
  • Ted Hughes: Environmentalist and Ecopoet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) ISBN 9783319591766

As Editor

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  • Magma 81 – "Anthropocene", with Maya Chowdhry and Cheryl Moskowitz (2021)
  • Poetry, Grief and Healing (Dog Horn Publishing, 2020) ISBN 9781907133329
  • Magma 75 – "Loss", with Adam Lowe (2019)
  • The Apple Anthology, with George Ttoouli (Nine Arches Press, 2013) ISBN 9780957384798

Awards

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  • 2016: Northern Writers' Awards[35]
  • 2016: Hawthornden Fellowship for 2017.[7]
  • 2017: Mslexia Women's Pamphlet Competition, for Translating Mountains
  • 2018: Commended, National Poetry Competition 2017
  • 2018: Peggy Poole Award 2017[10]
  • 2019: First Prize, Ambit Poetry Competition 2019, for 'In the Burning Season'
  • 2023: Third Prize, Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry 2022, for 'Burning Season' (poem)[36][37]
  • 2023: Best UK First Collection for Ecopoetry, The Laurel Prize[24]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Yvonne Reddick". Bloodaxe Books. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b Reddick, Yvonne. "Forest fires and snowshoe hares: climate change filmmaking in the Sierra Nevada". 2024 Annual Review. Leverhulme Trust: 62–63. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  3. ^ "2023 Winners". The Laurel Prize. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Burning Season". Bloodaxe Books. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  5. ^ a b c "Dr Yvonne Reddick". Institute for Black Atlantic Research. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  6. ^ "Staff". LCW Impact. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b c "Father's death inspires winning poet". University of Lancashire. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Ted Hughes: Environmentalist and Ecopoet". Springer. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  9. ^ a b c "Mental Health Awareness Week: Yvonne Reddick Q+A". The Poetry Society. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Peggy Poole Award". The Poetry Society. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  11. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2019). "In the Burning Season". Ambit (238, Autumn 2019). Ambit Magazine: 60. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  12. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2020). "Storm Petrel". Ambit (240, Spring 2020). Tim Bax: 3–6. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  13. ^ "Yvonne Reddick – Three New Poems". Little Toller Books. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  14. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2021). "Esther In The Asylum Garden". The Poetry Society. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  15. ^ "Two poems by Yvonne Reddick". And Other Poems. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  16. ^ Reddick, Yvonne. "Travelling through the fire". PN Review. 42 (3). Manchester: 77–78. ISSN 0144-7076. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  17. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2021). "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the River Congo: Paul Lomami Tchibamba, Jules Verne and Postcolonial Intertextuality". Postcolonial Text. 16 (1): 1–23. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  18. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2013). "Keys to the Poet's Mythologies". The Cambridge Quarterly. 42 (3). Oxford University Press: 287–294. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  19. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (2020). Lessley, Shara (ed.). "A River Voyage". West Branch (92). Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  20. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (24 May 2024). "This vegetable love: A garden journal in verse". Times Literary Supplement (6321). ISSN 0307-661X. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  21. ^ Reddick, Yvonne (16 September 2022). "Water land: Life alongside Oxford's canals in lockdown". Times Literary Supplement (6233). ISSN 0307-661X. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  22. ^ "Judge's report – Liz Berry on Ambit Poetry Competition 2019". Ambit (238, Autumn 2019). Ambit Magazine: 58–59. 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  23. ^ a b Astbury, Sonja (4 June 2020). "Preston lecturer's book to help deal with grief". Lancashire Post. ISSN 0964-0967. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  24. ^ a b "Yvonne Reddick's Burning Season wins The Laurel Prize Best UK First Collection". Bloodaxe Books. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  25. ^ "Scotland's National Book Awards 2023 Shortlist Announced". The Saltire Society Trust. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  26. ^ Frank, Rebecca (Morgan) (7 August 2023). "Burning Season by Yvonne Reddick". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  27. ^ "Searching for Snow Hares". University of Lancashire (formerly University of Central Lancashire). 18 September 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  28. ^ "Searching for Snow Hares". Aleksander Domanski. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  29. ^ "Aleksander Domanski". International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  30. ^ "Can you spot a snow hare on World Snow Day?". The British Mountaineering Council. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  31. ^ Whetstone, David (21 October 2024). "Writers urge Government to sign off on writing centre scheme". Cultured. North East. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  32. ^ Brown, Mark (8 September 2024). "Talent is classless: bold project launched to create centre for writing in north-east England". The Guardian. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  33. ^ "Poets pen climate change verse on recycled paper with vegetable oil ink". BBC. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  34. ^ "Deerhart by Yvonne Reddick (22 pages)". Knives Forks and Spoons Press. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  35. ^ "Winners 2016". New Writing North. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  36. ^ "Ecopoetry Anthology 2022" (PDF). Ginkgo Prize. Poetry School: 13–14. 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
  37. ^ "Gingko Prize 2023 winners announced at the Poetry International Festival". The Poetry Society. 21 July 2023. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
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