Duffy, Carol Ann

Carol Ann Duffy, poet, was born on December 31, 1955, to Francis and Mary Black Duffy, in Glasgow, Scotland. She attended the University of Liverpool, graduating with an honors degree in philosophy in 1977. From 1981-1995 Duffy lived in London. During this time she published Standing Female Nude and received the Scottish Arts Council Award (1985), Selling Manhattan, which received the Somerset Maugham Award (1992), and Mean Time, which won the Whitbread Award and the Forward Poetry Prize (1993). During these years Duffy also received the Eric Gregory Award (1983), the Dylan Thomas Award (1990), the Cholmondeley Award (1992), the Lannan Award and the OBE (1995). Duffy moved to Manchester in 1996 and became a part-time lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 1999 she was widely regarded as a leading contender for Poet Laureate, and in July of that year her collection The World's Wife was shortlisted in the collections category for the Forward Poetry Prize. In addition to her poetry collections, she has published numerous plays, written poetry and adapted fairy tales for children's books, and edited several anthologies.