Alison Fell (born 1944 in Dumfries, Scotland) is a Scottish poet and novelist with a particular interest in women's roles and political victims. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies. Her children's books also pass on social messages.
Alison Fell | |
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| Born | 1944  Dumfries |
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Life and work edit
Alison Fell was educated at Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh Art College, from which she graduated as a sculptor.[1] She began writing for Scotland Magazine in 1962. In 1967 she married a Leeds University academic and bore a son. By 1970 she had separated and she moved to London, where she co-founded the Woman's Street Theatre Group (later the Monstrous Regiment).[1] An account of the company and Fell's life at this period appears in Michèle Roberts's memoir Paper Houses.[2][3]
She worked at the underground newspaper Ink,[4] and contributed to Spare Rib.[5]
Fell's poems "speak for women, activists and political victims" and have been much anthologized. Her children's books Grey Dancer (1981) and The Bad Box (1987) "deal with growing up in left-wing working-class families." Kisses for Mayakovsky (1984) is a volume of them, and Every Move You Make, published in the same year, is an autobiographical novel. She also contributed about herself in Truth, Dare or Promise: Girls Growing up in the Fifties (1985, edited by Liz Heron).[3]
In addition to her output of poetry and fiction, she held the School of English and American Studies Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in 1998.[1]
Awards edit
- 1984: Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize for Kisses for Mayakovsky
- 1991: Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature for Mer de Glace
- 2002–2003: Royal Literary Fund Fellowship
Works edit
Poetry edit
- Smile, Smile, Smile, Smile. Sheba. 1980. ISBN 978-0-907179-03-0.
- Kisses for Mayakovsky. Virago. 1984. ISBN 978-0-86068-593-7.
- The Crystal Owl. Methuen Paperback. 1988. ISBN 978-0-413-18810-6.
- Dreams, Like Heretics: New and Selected Poems. Serpent's Tail. 1997. ISBN 978-1-85242-561-6.
- August 6, 1945.
Novels edit
- The Grey Dancer. Collins. 1981. ISBN 978-0-00184-267-0.
- Every Move You Make. Virago. 1984. ISBN 978-0-86068-585-2.
- The Bad Box. Virago. 1987. ISBN 978-0-86068-497-8.
- Mer de Glace. Serpent's Tail. 1992. ISBN 978-1-85242-267-7.
- The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro. Harcourt Brace. 1996. ISBN 978-0-15-100186-6.
- The Mistress of Lilliput. 1999. ISBN 978-1-86230-048-4.
- Tricks of the light. Doubleday. 2003. ISBN 978-0-385-60508-3.
- The Element -Inth in Greek. Sandstone Press Ltd. 2012. ISBN 978-1-90-873702-1.
Anthology edit
- Licking the Bed Clean: Five Feminist Poets. Teeth imprints. 1978. ISBN 978-0-9506390-0-0.
Editor edit
- The Seven Deadly Sins. Illustrator Amanda Faulkner. Serpent's Tail. 1989. ISBN 978-1-85242-140-3.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - The Seven Cardinal Virtues. Illustrator Grizelda Holderness. Serpent's Tail. 1990. ISBN 978-1-85242-169-4.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - Serious Hysterics. Serpent's Tail. 1992. ISBN 978-1-85242-222-6.
References edit
- ^ a b c Alison Fell page at British Council Literature.
- ^ Michèle Roberts, Paper Houses: A Memoir of the 70s and Beyond, 2007, Virago, ISBN 978-1844084074; paperback 2008, ISBN 978-1844084081.
- ^ a b Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: The Feminist Companion to Literature in English (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 361.
- ^ Nigel Fountain (1988). Underground: the London alternative press, 1966–74. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-00728-3.
- ^ Alison Fell (March 1976). "Nights". Spare Rib (44). Spare Ribs Ltd: 9–11.
External links edit
- Vicki Bertram, ed. (1997). Kicking Daffodils: Twentieth-Century Women Poets. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0782-2.