Polly Clark

Polly Clark is the author of three novels and four collections of poetry. 

Her third novel Ocean was published in hardback by Eye Books June 2025. It follows the story of a traumatised family fleeing the aftermath of a terrorist explosion on the London Underground by crossing the Atlantic together in a sailing boat. Louis de Bernières describes it as ’Strange, wonderful and compelling’ and Irish Times said: Ocean “shines in its exploration of the deep weirdness of grief and trauma”.

Her first novel, Larchfield (Quercus, 2017) fictionalised a little-known but vital time in the life of poet WH Auden and won the Mslexia Prize. The book and its author were featured in the BBC biopic of WH Auden, Stop All The Clocks, alongside Paul Muldoon, Alexander McCall Smith, Richard Curtis and others. Larchfield received plaudits from Richard Ford, Margaret Atwood and others.

Her follow up Tiger (Quercus, 2019) was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Book of the year and was described by the Guardian as joining a ‘vanguard of novels – including Laline Paull’s The Bees, Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy and Richard Powers’s tree epic The Overstory – which approach non-human life in diverting new ways.’

A retrospective of Clark’s poetry, Afterlife: New and Selected Poems is published by Bloodaxe Books in 2026. She won an Eric Gregory Award for her first poetry collection, Kiss (Bloodaxe, 2000) and her second Take Me With You (Bloodaxe, 2005) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Her short collection A Handbook for the Afterlife (Templar, 2015) was shortlisted in the Michael Marks Awards.

Polly Clark was born in Toronto, brought up in Scotland and writes on a houseboat in London.