Holly Hopkins grew up in Berkshire, spent time in London and now lives in Manchester. Holly’s first collection The English Summer (Penned in the Margins) ‘takes on the stories England tells about itself’. It was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Prize and won a Laurel Prize. It was awarded the Poetry Book Society’s Special Commendation and was named one of The Guardian’s ‘Best Poetry Books of 2022’. Her debut pamphlet, Soon Every House Will Have One, won the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition and Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Holly is an assistant editor at The Poetry Business and The North. She has received an Eric Gregory Award, a Hawthornden Fellowship and was shortlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize. Work-in-progress, which will form Holly’s second collection, was awarded the Northern Writers Award for Poetry in 2023.
A poet of rare talents, who will make you chuckle, stop in your tracks, then question everything you know. – Sarah Howe
Holly Hopkins 