Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding Daljit Nagra. From 1 October 2019 until 30 September 2023, she was the Oxford Professor of Poetry.

Biography Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe. Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford. She then trained as a gardener and worked at such sites as Chelsea Physic Garden, Wisley and Clovelly Court Gardens. As of 2016, she was living near Totnes, Devon, with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald, and her three children. Alice Oswald is the sister of actor Will Keen and writer Laura Beatty and the aunt of Keen's daughter Dafne.

Works In 1994, she was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. Her first collection of poetry, The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile (1996), was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) in 1996, as well as the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1997.

Her second collection, Dart (2002), combined verse and prose, and tells the story of the River Dart in Devon from a variety of perspectives. Jeanette Winterson called it a " … moving, changing poem, as fast-flowing as the river and as deep … a celebration of difference … ". Dart won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002.

In 2004, Oswald was named as one of the Poetry Book Society's Next Generation poets. Her collection Woods etc., published in 2005, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection).

In 2009, she published both A sleepwalk on the Severn and Weeds and Wildflowers, which won the inaugural Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

In October 2011, Oswald published her 6th collection, Memorial. Subtitled "An Excavation of the Iliad", Memorial is based on the Iliad attributed to Homer but departs from the narrative form of the Iliad to focus on, and so commemorate, the individual named characters whose deaths are mentioned in that poem. Later in October 2011, Memorial was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, but in December 2011, Oswald withdrew the book from the short list, citing concerns about the ethics of the prize's sponsors. In 2013, Memorial won the Poetry Society’s Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for poetry in translation.

Oswald was a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016. In 2017, she won the Griffin Poetry Prize for her seventh collection of poems, Falling Awake. A 2019 review of Nobody in the Guardian noted that "Oswald's element is water."

On 9 August 2025, Oswald, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, was among 532 people arrested in London at a protest where signs and placards in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action were displayed.

Bibliography

Poetry Collections 1996: The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile, Oxford University Press, 2002: Dart, Faber and Faber, 2005: Woods etc. Faber and Faber, 2009: Weeds and Wild Flowers, Faber and Faber, 2009: A sleepwalk on the Severn, Faber and Faber, 2011: Memorial, Faber and Faber, 2016: Falling Awake, Jonathan Cape 2019: Nobody, Jonathan Cape 2020: A Short Story of Falling - Metal Engravings by Maribel Mas. Published by Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry Anthologies (edited) 2002: Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge (co-edited with Peter Oswald and Robert Woof), Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust, 2005: The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet (editor), Faber and Faber, 2024: Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems (foreword), New York University Press, List of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedEvening poem2016

Awards and recognition 1994: Eric Gregory Award 1996: Arts Foundation Award for Poetry 1996: winner of the Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection), The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile 1997: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize, for The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile 2002: T. S. Eliot Prize for Dart 2005: shortlisted for Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), for Woods etc. 2005: shortlisted for T. S. Eliot Prize for Woods etc. 2007: Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem) for 'Dunt' 2009: Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for Weeds and Wild Flowers 2011: short-listed for T. S. Eliot Prize, for Memorial, subsequently withdrawn due to Oswald's ethical concerns 2013: Warwick Prize for Writing, winner for Memorial 2013: Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry, winner for Memorial 2016: Costa Award for Poetry for Falling Awake 2017: Griffin Poetry Prize for Falling Awake

References

External links

Contemporarywriters.com Alice Oswald – Biography and Analysis of her Works Poetry Archive profile with poems written and audio Interview with Oswald. Magama magazine, issue 51 2008. "Presiding Spirits". London Review of Books Review of Woods etc by Aingeal Clare. Guardian article 30 March 2010: Alice Oswald wins inaugural Ted Hughes award. Accessed 2010-03-31 'Tithonus 46 minutes in the life of the dawn' 'Alice Oswald'