Judy Brown

Judy Brown’s first collection of poetry, Loudness (Seren, 2011), was shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis and Fenton Aldeburgh prizes for best first collection. In 2014 she received an Arts Council England grant for the arts to complete her second collection, also to be published by Seren. Judy has held several writing residences: she was a Gladstone’s Library writer-in-residence in 2014 and during 2013 was poet-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust, based at Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth’s former home in Grasmere, Cumbria. Work from Judy’s year in Grasmere was published as One of the Summer People (Wordsworth Trust, 2013). Judy’s first pamphlet, Pillars of Salt (Templar Poetry, 2006), was a winner in the Templar pamphlet competition and she has also won the Manchester Poetry prize, the Poetry London competition and the Poetry Society’s Hamish Canham prize. Her poems have appeared in the Guardian, the Spectator and the New Statesman and have been anthologised in Identity Parade: new British and Irish poets (Bloodaxe, 2010).
Judy works as a freelance writer and tutor, runs poetry surgeries in Derby for the Poetry Society, reviews poetry and has recently been involved in the RLF’s Birmingham Writing Project. Before turning to writing and teaching full-time, Judy worked for many years in international law firms. Admitted as a lawyer in England and Hong Kong, she specialised in knowledge management, training, and ensuring the quality of internal and external legal and other documentation. She lives in a churchyard in Derbyshire.