Julia Copus

Julia Copus (born 1969) is an English poet, children's writer, and radio dramatist.

Career
Copus was born in London. She studied Latin at Durham University. She won an Eric Gregory Award at 24 in 1994, and her first full poetry collection – The Shuttered Eye – was published a year later.

Copus' books of poetry include The Shuttered Eye (Bloodaxe, 1995), which won her an Eric Gregory Award and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, In Defence of Adultery (Bloodaxe, 2003) and The World's Two Smallest Humans (Faber, 2012), shortlisted for both the Costa Book Awards (poetry category) and the T.S. Eliot Prize. All three collections are Poetry Book Society Recommendations.

Eenie Meenie Macka Racka (an original 45-minute play for radio) was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September, 2003, having been commissioned after Copus won the BBC's Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for Best New Radio Playwright in 2002. In the same year she won First Prize in the National Poetry Competition with Breaking the Rule.

In 2001, she received writing awards from the Arts Council of England and the Authors’ Foundation, and in 2003, she collaborated with sculptor Stephen Broadbent to produce a poem inscribed on a bronze bench and sculpture in Fleming Square, Blackburn.

In the summer of 2004, Copus was commissioned to write a poem for St. Dunstan's, Brighton, as part of the Architexts project, administered by David Kendall for the Arts Council. She was awarded a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at the University of Exeter in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The following year she was made an RLF Advisory Fellow and awarded an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Exeter. In 2010, she won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem for An Easy Passage.

A concise writing guide for undergraduates called "Essential Writing Tips" was published by Macmillan in July 2009, and has subsequently been made into an audiobook.

A sequence of poems for radio, Ghost Lines, based on the author's experience of IVF treatment, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December 2011 and shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

Her first book for children, Hog in the Fog (A Harry & Lil Story) will be published by Faber in March 2014.

Recognition
Prizes 1994 Eric Gregory Award Website

1995 Hawthornden Fellowship

1997 (shortlist) Forward Prize for Best First Collection The Shuttered Eye Website

2001 Arts Council Writers' Award Website

2005 Arts Council Writers' Award Website

2002 BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award (Best New Radio Playwright) Eenie Meenie Macka Racka

2002 BBC/Gulbenkian Writers Award Website

2002 National Poetry Competition (First Prize - 'Breaking the Rule') Website

2010 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem An Easy Passage

2012 (shortlist) T S Eliot Prize for The World's Two Smallest Humans

Poetry collections

 * The Shuttered Eye, Bloodaxe Books 1995
 * In Defence of Adultery, Bloodaxe Books 2003
 * The World's Two Smallest Humans, Faber 2012

For children

 * The Landlord's Cat, Out of the Ark Music 2010 (with Antony Copus)
 * Harry & Lil: The tale of a hog in the fog, Faber 2014

Non-fiction

 * Brilliant Writing Tips for Students, Palgrave Macmillan 2009

Audio

 * Julia Copus Reading from Her Poems, (CD) The Poetry Archive 2010

Awards and honours

 * 1994 Eric Gregory Award
 * 1995 Hawthornden Fellowship
 * 1997 The Shuttered Eye shortlisted for Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection
 * 2001 Arts Council Writers' Award
 * 2001 Authors' Foundation Award
 * 2002 National Poetry Competition, First Prize - Breaking the Rule
 * 2002 BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for Best New Radio Playwright, Eenie Meenie Macka Racka
 * 2005 Arts Council Writers' Award
 * 2008 Honorary Fellowship, Exeter University
 * 2008 Advisory Fellowship, Royal Literary Fund
 * 2010 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem), An Easy Passage
 * 2011 Ghost Lines shortlisted for Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry
 * 2012 Costa Book Awards (poetry category), shortlist, The World's Two Smallest Humans
 * 2012 T S Eliot Prize, shortlist, The World's Two Smallest Humans