About Sheenagh Pugh

Born in Birmingham, Sheenagh Pugh moved to Wales at a young age. She continued to live around Wales and the south-west of England for a number of years, including a period studying Russian and German at the University of Bristol. Her first collection of poetry, Crowded by Shadows, was published in 1977. Since then, she has regularly written new collections and received national recognition for her work. Pugh’s book Stonelight won Wales Book of The Year award in 2000 and she received the Bridport Prize in 1997 and 2003. Her 2002 collection The Beautiful Lie was nominated for one of the UK’s premier literary awards, the Whitbread Prize.

Her poetry has been described as combining ‘accessibility with profundity, clarity and sophistication’ and it is particularly focused on human effort and struggle. In Pugh’s own words, ‘I like to use poems to commemorate people and places, sometimes to amuse, to have a go at things I don’t like (censorship, intolerance, pomposity) and above all to entertain.’ With her background in modern languages, Pugh has translated several poetry collections.  She also worked as a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan in Scotland but retired in 2008 and is now a full-time writer.