Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to grammar school, and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before completing her degree. She later gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Writing for the Stage from City College Manchester. She has taught at the University of Kent at Canterbury, Queen's University Belfast, University College Cork, University of Stockholm, and the University of Hull; she is currently Visiting Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Bangor. She has held the position of Poetry Editor for the literary newspaper, (the publisher) Quarto, and for the Literary Review, and she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The author of fifteen collections of poems, as well as occasional fiction, drama and translation, Rumens has received the Cholmondeley Award and the Prudence Farmer Prize for her poetry, and was joint recipient of an Alice Hunt Bartlett Award. Her collection, Star Whisper (1983) was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award. She has also published a collection of her lectures on poetry, Self into Song. Her work has appeared regularly in publications such as The Guardian, The Observer and Poetry Review, and she currently writes the hugely popular 'Poem of the Week' feature for The Guardian.
