Jamie, Kathleen 1962–

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Jamie, Kathleen 1962–

PERSONAL:

Born May 13, 1962, in Johnston, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Education: University of Edinburgh, M.A. (honors), in philosophy.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Newburgh-on-Tay, Fife, Scotland. Office—University of St. Andrews, The School of English, Castle House, The Poetry House, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, Scotland. Agent—David Fletcher Associates, 58 John St., Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland.

CAREER:

Educator and author. Writer-in-residence at Midlothian District Libraries, 1987-89, University of Dundee, 1991-93, and University of Western Ontario, 1994-95; University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, lecturer in creative writing, 1999—. Arvon Foundation, tutor. Lecturer for British Council in various countries; gives readings and workshops in creative writing.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Eric Gregory Award, 1981; Scottish Arts Council, Book Award, 1982, for Black Spiders, grant, 1985, Book Award, 1988, for The Way We Live, bursary, 1997, Creative Scotland Award, 2001, and Book of the Year Award, 2005, for The Tree House; fellow, Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, 1989; K. Blundell Trust Fund grant, 1989; Compton Fund grant, 1989; Somerset Maugham Award, 1995, for The Queen of Sheba; Forward Prize for best individual poem, 1996; Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, 1996, for The Queen of Sheba, and 2000, for Jizzen; Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Individual Artists, 1997; Forward Prize for best poetry collection, Forward Arts Foundation, 2004, for The Tree House.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Black Spiders, Salamander (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1982.

(With Andrew Greig) A Flame in Your Heart, Bloodaxe (Newcastle upon Tyne, England), 1986.

The Way We Live, Bloodaxe (Newcastle upon Tyne, England), 1987.

The Queen of Sheba, Bloodaxe (Newcastle upon Tyne, England), 1994.

Jizzen, Picador (London, England), 1999.

Mr. and Mrs. Scotland are Dead, Bloodaxe (Newcastle upon Tyne, England), 2002.

The Tree House, Picador (London, England), 2004.

Findings, Graywolf Press (Saint Paul, MN), 2007.

Waterlight: Selected Poems, Graywolf Press (Saint Paul, MN), 2007.

Has produced two commissioned long poems: "Ultrasound," for BBC Radio 3, and "Voluspa," for BBC Radio 4. Contributor of poetry to periodicals, including London Review of Books, and to various anthologies.

OTHER

The Golden Peak: Travels in Northern Pakistan, Virago (London, England), 1992, published as Among Muslims: Meetings at the Frontiers of Pakistan, Sort of Books, 2002.

The Autonomous Region: Poems and Photographs from Tibet, Bloodaxe (Newcastle upon Tyne, England), 1993.

Also author of radio dramas Rumors of Guns, with Andrew Greig, 1985, and The Whitsun Weddings (based on Philip Larkin's poem of same title), broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 1999. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Scotsman, New Edinburgh Review, and Lines Review. Coeditor, New Writing Scotland, 1996-98.

Jamie's manuscript collections are housed at University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia, and at the National Library of Scotland.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kathleen Jamie has published many poetry collections, among them 1994's The Queen of Sheba and 1999's Jizzen. According to Bill Greenwell's New Statesman review of the former, Jamie has created remarkably "startling, special poems." The "title poem [of The Queen of Sheba]—the first printed, regrettably, because it would have made a brilliant climax—confronts the erotic biblical hussy with a suspicious Presbyterian audience," commented Greenwell, who added: "This wonderful piece of glee is matched by ‘School Reunion,’ a poem full of disbelieving energy as present and past collide." Although Greenwell remarked that Jamie at times appears to lose her "inspirations" in her poetry, resulting in occasional poems that he called "patchy," the critic maintained: "I'd eat the Pope and his hat for the poems I have mentioned, and dose myself happily on her contagious energy."

In a Times Literary Supplement assessment of Jamie's "exhilarating new collection"—Jizzen, Patrick Crotty observed: "Jamie's bringing the materials of one room of life to bear on the goings on of another is fuelled by a deep, strikingly unpostmodern faith in the possibility of arriving at a unitary apprehension of experience through engineering unfamiliar relationships between its disparate parts." Crotty continued: "[Jamie's] poems are unabashedly democratic in their directness of address and in their urge to give witness to the lives of ordinary people." Crotty's concluding remarks positively attached the descriptors "energy," "earnestness and good humor," and "panache" to Jamie's work in Jizzen.

In a critical assessment of Findings, Spectator critic James Fleming remarked: "There is nothing fey or arty about [Jamie's] writing. She has an inquisitive, unpredictable, generous mind that she speaks firmly."In the book, Jamie's poetic eye traverses subjects such as many varieties of Scottish wildlife, including nesting Peregrine falcons; the miscellaneous items that have been found on rooftops in Edinburgh; and the unexpected beauty of a medical exhibit featuring a dissected and prepared kidney. Fleming concluded that the collection is an "excellent and original work."

In Waterlight: Selected Poems Jamie wraps larger observations about the world in the language and diction of her Scottish homeland. She presents poems that serve as travelogues of her journeys to Budapest and Canada; as commentary on British politics; and of appreciation of the natural world surrounding her. Booklist reviewer Patricia Monaghan called Jamie a "poet of many happy qualities," one who is "most impressive when closest to home and family life close to nature."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Poets, 7th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Contemporary Women Poets, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2007, Patricia Monaghan, review of Waterlight: Selected Poems, p. 17.

Bookseller, October 8, 2004, "Winners Step Forward," p. 6; June 17, 2005, "Kathleen Jamie Wins Scots Award," p. 7.

Books in Canada, March, 2004, "Bashing out Praises to Kathleen Jamie," p. 38.

Encounter, March, 1987, review of A Flame in Your Heart, p. 63.

London Review of Books, July 7, 2005, review of Findings, p. 9; August 4, 2005, review of Findings, p. 31; August 18, 2005, review of Findings, p. 29.

New Statesman, January 29, 1988, Robert Sheppard, review of The Way We Live, p. 32; May 13, 1994, Bill Greenwell, review of The Queen of Sheba, p. 38.

Spectator, July 9, 2005, James Fleming, "Of Fulmars and Fleams," review of Findings, p. 36.

Times Educational Supplement, March 18, 1988, David Self, review of The Way We Live, p. 30.

Times Literary Supplement, April 15, 1988, Mark Ford, review of The Way We Live, p. 419; November 19, 1999, Patrick Crotty, review of Jizzen; July 19, 2002, review of Among Muslims: Meetings at the Frontiers of Pakistan, p. 31; August 16, 2002, "Romantic Risks," p. 22; November 19, 2004, "In the Gloaming," p. 34; July 15, 2005, "Intensive Care," p. 5.