Nancy Campbell

Nancy Campbell

Nancy Campbell (b. 1978, Exeter) grew up in Berwickshire, Scotland. She began writing Disko Bay while Writer in Residence in the world’s most northerly museum, on the island of Upernavik, Greenland. ‘The darkness of the polar winter,’ she says ‘may come across in the tone of the collection.’ Campbell’s book ‘considers the connections between northern Europe and the Arctic, looking at migrations across the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, as well as the consequences of colonialism and climate change.’ While in Upernavik, she also worked on an artist’s book How To Say I Love You In Greenlandic: An Arctic Alphabet (winner of the Birgit Skiöld Award).

Campbell trained as a printmaker and is currently editor of Printmaking Today, a position that she says focuses her interest on ‘the material form that has for so long been a central concern of my work.’ A delicate understanding of balance – ecological, social and visual – underwrites her work as poet.

Forward Prizes History:

• 2016 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, shortlisted for Disko Bay (Enitharmon)