Carol-Ann named Honorary Fellow of the British Academy

THE POET Laureate and Creative Director of the Manchester Writing School, Professor Dame Carol-Ann Duffy, has been named an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.

Carol-Ann, Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Met, has been recognised by the British Academy for her outstanding contributions to the creative subjects.

Fellows are elected by the British Academy in recognition of their research and work in the humanities and social science, and the annual fellows list features the most eminent scholars.

She was one of three new Honorary Fellows announced at the British Academy’s Annual General meeting that included the election of new Fellows and new Corresponding Fellows.

Influential

The Poet Laureate heads up the University’s Manchester Writing School as its creative director and teaches the poetry route of the MA in Creative Writing. She joined Manchester Met in 1996 as Lecturer in Poetry.

Since then she has spearheaded a number of projects, including the Manchester Children’s Book Festival and the Mother Tongue Other Tongue poetry competition.

In 2013 Carol-Ann was named as one of the 100 most influential women by BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour and she was also named on the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List of the country’s most influential LGBT people.

She has won numerous literary awards, including the Costa Prize and the PEN/Pinter Prize.

Highly distinguished

There were 42 highly distinguished UK academics from 18 universities who were elected as Fellows, as well as three new Honorary Fellows and 20 new Corresponding Fellows from oversees universities.

The British Academy is the UK's expert body that supports the humanities and social sciences as well as funding research.

Disciplines range from archaeology to economics, from psychology to history, and from literature to law – producing knowledge, insights and ideas.

The Academy consists of more than 1,000 Fellows.