Jen Hadfield

Jen Hadfield

Hadfield in 2007
Hadfield in 2007
Born1978 (age 46–47)
Cheshire, England
OccupationPoet, visual artist, teacher
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow
Notable worksNigh-No-Place, Almanacs
Notable awardsT. S. Eliot Prize
Eric Gregory Award
Windham-Campbell

Jen Hadfield (born 1978) is a British poet and visual artist.[1] She has published four poetry collections. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2003.[2] Hadfield is the youngest female poet to be awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize, with her second collection, Nigh-No-Place, in 2008.[1] Her fourth collection, The Stone Age, was selected as the Poetry Book Society choice for spring 2021 and won the Highland Book Prize, 2021. In 2024, she was awarded a Windham-Campbell prize.[3]

Hadfield's poems and visual art are based on her experience of living, working and traveling in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and Canada.[2] In her work as an artist, she often uses found objects, salvage materials and ocean detritus.[1]

Themes in Hadfield's poems include home and belonging, wildness and subsistence, landscape and language, and the Shetland dialect.[2]

Biography

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Jen Hadfield was born in 1978 to a Canadian mother and a British father.[4] She grew up in Cheshire, England.[2] She obtained a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Edinburgh. Later, she was awarded a joint creative writing MLitt (with Distinction) from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.[2]

Hadfield has been a professional poet since 2002.[5] In 2003, she won the Eric Gregory Award, which enabled a year of travel and writing in Canada.[2] Her first collection, Almanacs (Bloodaxe Books, 2005) was written in Shetland and the Western Isles in 2002, thanks to a bursary from the Scottish Arts Council. Her second collection, Nigh–No–Place (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), inspired by her travels in Shetland and Canada, was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2008.[6] Hadfield was winner of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Award in 2012.[7] and selected in 2014 as one of "Next Generation Poets", a promotion organised by the Poetry Book Society. Other honours include the Scottish Arts Council Bursary Award, and residencies with the Shetland Arts Trust and the Scottish Poetry Library.[1][2][8]

Making artists' books is part of Hadfield's work. She collaborated with printer Ursula Freeman of Redlake Press on The Printer’s Devil and the Little Bear (2006), a limited edition handmade book that combined traditional letterpress techniques and laserprint. The book is illustrated with Hadfield's photographs of Canada.[2]

In 2007, a Dewar Award enabled Hadfield to travel in Mexico and research Mexican devotional folk art. She "created a solo exhibition of 'Shetland ex-votos in the style of sacred Mexican folk art' – tiny, portable, insistently familiar landscapes packed in an array of weathered tobacco tins."[2]

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2021.[9]

Hadfield lives on Burra in Shetland, where she works as a poet and writing tutor.[8][3] She has a partner and a child.[10]

Hadfield has said "We live in painful times, in a difficult world, and yet the world is still overwhelmingly magical. Poetry gives us a chance to stop, reflect, process, cope, grieve and revere".[11]

Bibliography

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Poetry collections

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  • Nigh–No–Place (Bloodaxe Books, 2008)
  • Byssus (Picador, 2014)
  • The Stone Age (Picador, 2021)

Biographies

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  • Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland (Picador, 2024)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Jen Hadfield". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Jen Hadfield (b. 1978)". Scottish Poetry Library. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  3. ^ a b Marter, Hans J (2 April 2024). "Receiving 'mind-blowing' news – Hadfield wins six-figure literary prize". Shetland News. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  4. ^ "About Jen Hadfield". The Poetry Archive. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  5. ^ "2007 Awardees". Dewar Arts Awards. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  6. ^ Bowden, Jen (19 August 2012). "Jen Hadfield wins Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  7. ^ "Previous Winners 2012". The Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  8. ^ a b "Next Generation Poets 2014. Jen Hadfield". Next Generation Poets. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  9. ^ "Hadfield, Jen". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  10. ^ "I FEEL LIKE IT'S INFINITE: Jen Hadfield on 'Storm Pegs' & More". Glasgow Review of Books. 12 August 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  11. ^ Jamieson, Carol (6 August 2023). "Poets' Corner – Jen Hadfield". Shetland News. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
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