10 Facts About Jo Shapcott

Jo Shapcott lived in Hemel Hempstead and attended Cavendish School in the town prior to studying as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin.

Jo Shapcott was a visiting professor at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, was a visiting professor at the London Institute and was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University from 2003 to 2005.

Jo Shapcott is a longstanding tutor for the Arvon Foundation.

Jo Shapcott initially accepted the honour but decided to refuse during the period when the British government made preparations to invade Iraq.

In 2016, Jo Shapcott was welcomed as a trustee to The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry.

Jo Shapcott has won the National Poetry Competition twice, in 1985 and 1991.

Jo Shapcott's 2002 book Tender Taxes is a collection of English versions of Rainer Maria Rilke's French poems.

In 2010, Jo Shapcott published Of Mutability with Faber and Faber, her first collection for 12 years.

Jo Shapcott has written lyrics or had her poems set to music by composers such as Nigel Osborne, Errollyn Wallen and John Woolrich.

Jo Shapcott was a judge for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize, as well as the 2013 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.