Mary Jean Chan is a Hong Kong-Chinese poet, lecturer, editor and critic whose debut poetry collection, Flèche (Faber & Faber, 2019), won the 2019 Costa Book Award for Poetry. Chan's second book, Bright Fear, was published by Faber in 2023. Chan served as a judge for the 2023 Booker Prize and the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize.
Biography
Mary Jean Chan was born in 1990 and was raised in Hong Kong. Chan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College in 2012 with a BA in Political Science. Chan obtained an MPhil from Oxford in International Development and completed an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.
In 2018, Chan's pamphlet, A Hurry of English, was published by ignitionpress and was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Summer Pamphlet Choice. Chan's debut poetry collection Flèche was published by Faber & Faber (2019). It was chosen as a Poetry Book Society Autumn Recommendation. The book won the Costa Book Award for Poetry in 2019.
In 2019, Chan was named as one of Jackie Kay's 10 Best BAME Writers in Britain, with Kay describing Chan's poetry as "psychologically astute and culturally complex."
Chan's second collection, Bright Fear, was shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2024 International Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2024 Writers' Prize.
Chan was Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Oxford Brookes University from 2020 till 2023. Chan is a Departmental Lecturer in Poetry on the MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford after serving as the 2023–24 Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at the University of Cambridge.
Awards Year Title Award Category Result Ref 2017 — National Poetry Competition — Second Place — The Poetry Society Anne Born Prize — — Forward Prizes for Poetry Single Poem 2018 — The Poetry Society Geoffrey Dearmer Award — 2019 — Forward Prizes for Poetry Single Poem A Hurry of English Eric Gregory Award — Flèche Costa Book Award Poetry 2020 Dylan Thomas Prize — Jhalak Prize — John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize — Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Prize — 2021 Lambda Literary Awards Lesbian Poetry 2022 100 Queer Poems Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards — 2023 Bright Fear Forward Prizes for Poetry Collection 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize — The Folio Prize — Jhalak Prize — Bibliography
Edited works
References
External links
Mary Jean Chan on Goodreads Profile at The Poetry Society Profile at Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Society Profile at The Booker Prizes Profile at Granta