Sheenagh Pugh

Sheenagh Pugh (born 20 December, 1950 in Birmingham) is a British poet, novelist and translator who writes in the English language.

Sheenagh Pugh studied languages at the University of Bristol. She lives in Cardiff and teaches writing at the University of Glamorgan. Her collection of poetry, "Stonelight" (1999) won the Wales Book of the Year award in 2000. She has twice won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition. Her collection of poetry "The Beautiful Lie" (Seren, 2002) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and the collection "The Movement of Bodies" (Seren, 2005) was selected as a Poetry Book Society recommendation and also shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize.

Pugh's interest in northern landscapes is well-known and a strong feature of her work. She spends a significant proportion of her time in Shetland, where one of her novels, "Kirstie's Witnesses", is set.

Her poem 'Sometimes' ("Selected Poems", 1990) appeared in "Poems on the Underground" and is among her best-known works, though Pugh herself states on her website that she "long ago got sick of it" [http://sheenagh.googlepages.com/thedreadedsometimes The Dreaded Sometimes: Sheenagh Pugh's website] (accessed 28 June 2007)] and no longer allows it to be anthologised or used in examination questions. Politically correct versions of this poem using inclusive language have been published, ruining the scansion and raising Pugh's ire.

Pugh has also published a study of fan fiction, "The Democratic Genre: fan fiction in a literary context" (Seren, 2005), which is one of the first publications to treat fan fiction as a literary rather than a sociological phenomenon. Fandom is also the subject of her 'Fanfic' sequence, in the collection "The Beautiful Lie", which includes a poem about Mary-Sues.

Pugh's newest collection, "Long-Haul Travellers", was published by Seren in Autumn 2008. It features several poems set in Norway and a sequence about the Dutch privateer turned Barbary pirate Murat Reis. [ [http://sheenagh.googlepages.com/events Sheenagh Pugh: Events] (accessed 26 April 2008)]

Works

Poetry

*"Crowded by Shadows" (1977)
*"What a Place to Grow Flowers" (1979)
*"Earth Studies and Other Voyages" (1982)
*"Beware Falling Tortoises" (1987)
*"Sing for the Taxman" (1993)
*"Id's Hospit" (1997)
*"Stonelight" (1999)
*"The Beautiful Lie" (2002)
*"The Movement of Bodies" (2005)
*"Long-Haul Travellers" (2008)

Poetry anthologies

*"Selected Poems" (1990)
*"What If This Road and Other Poems" (2003)

Novels

*"Kirstie's Witnesses" (1998)
*"Folk Music" (1999)

Translation

*"Prisoners of Transience" (1985)

Nonfiction

*"The Democratic Genre" (2005)All published by Seren except "Kirstie's Witnesses", published by the Shetland Publishing Company, and "What If This Road and Other Poems", published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch.

References

External links

* [http://sheenagh.googlepages.com Sheenagh Pugh's website]
* [http://sheenaghpugh.livejournal.com/ Sheenagh Pugh's blog]
* [http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=authC2D9C28A13ff01BA37RjM2B357B8 British Council - Arts: Sheenagh Pugh]
* [http://www.refractory.unimelb.edu.au/journalissues/vol5/pugh.html Pugh S (2004) The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context. "Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media" vol. 5] -- republished in "The Democratic Genre"