Claire Askew was born in 1986, grew up in the rural Scottish Borders, and now lives in Cumbria, having relocated after sixteen years in Edinburgh. Her poetry books are The Mermaid and the Sailors (Red Squirrel Press, 2011), This changes things (Bloodaxe, 2016), and How To Burn A Woman (Bloodaxe, 2021). This changes things was runner up for the 2014 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and Claire was again shortlisted in 2016 for an early version of the manuscript that would become How To Burn A Woman. She has also been shortlisted for a Saltire Award, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize, and the Michael Murphy Memorial Award.
Claire is also a novelist and non fiction writer: her books include the multi-award-winning novel All The Hidden Truths (Hodder & Stoughton, 2018) and the fiction-writing guide Novelista (John Murray, 2020). She was the winner of the 2019 McIlvanney Debut Award and has been twice shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of Edinburgh, and has been a Scottish Book Trust Reading Champion (2016-17), Jessie Kesson Fellow (2017) and University of Edinburgh Writer in Residence.
