Hollie McNish

Hollie McNish

Hollie McNish at the 2016 Hay Festival
Background information
Genres Poetry, Slam Poetry, Spoken word
Years active 2009–present
Labels Yup!
Website holliepoetry.com

Hollie McNish (also known as Hollie Poetry) is a British poet, author and spoken word artist.

Early life

Born in Reading to Glaswegian parents,[1] McNish grew up in a village outside the town, attending the local comprehensive school.[2] She studied French and German at King's College, Cambridge, before studying part-time for a master's degree in international development and economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.[1][3][4]

Career

2009–present

McNish won the UK Slam Poetry Competition in 2009 and went on to finish 3rd in the global Slam Du Monde contest.[5] A collection of her poems, Papers, was published by Greenwich Exchange in 2012.[6]

A number of McNish's YouTube videos have gone viral and her account currently has over 4.1 million views.[6][7] Her first album, Versus, was released in September 2014 under the pseudonym Hollie Poetry; she was the first poet to record an album at Abbey Road Studios.[8] McNish has collaborated with Kate Tempest and George the Poet and they have appeared on stage with her during her 2015 tour.[8] McNish received major national airplay on the BBC, first in January 2015 on Huw Stephens BBC Radio 1 show and then in May 2015 on BBC Radio 1Xtra as part of a spoken word event.[9][10]

In February 2016, McNish talked to Jenni Murray on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour about her poetic memoir Nobody Told Me.[11] Later that year, Woman's Hour broadcast a short series entitled 'Becoming a Mother: A Hot Cup of Tea with Hollie McNish'.[12]

On 29 March 2017 it was announced that Nobody Told Me had won the 2016 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.[13][14] In an interview with McNish for The Guardian in June 2017, Alice O'Keeffe described Nobody Told Me as,

"a scrappy, chaotic, heartfelt portrait of new motherhood, from the moment McNish found out she was pregnant (in the toilets at King’s Cross station on her way to Glastonbury) to her daughter turning three. It includes diary entries, poems jotted in the dead of night and during nap-times, breathless musings on breastfeeding, sex after giving birth, and the state of the world."[2]

In June 2017, Picador will publish McNish's latest poetry collection, Plum.[14] She discussed the book with James Naughtie on the BBC News Channel's Meet the Author.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Dunleavy, Hannah (2 October 2014). "Rhyme and Reason". Standardissuemagazine.com. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 O'Keeffe, Alice (17 June 2017). "The books interview: 'I always attacted mums and midwives. Now I get poetry lovers' Hollie McNish". The Guardian (Review section). London. p. 9. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "Interview with Hollie McNish, poet and spoken word artist". Voice Magazine. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Hollie McNish - LinkedIn Profile". LinkedIn. LinkedIn Corporation. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  5. ↑ "Hollie McNish, Poet & Spoken Word Artist.". Arts Award Voice. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  6. 1 2 "News Release - Arts Foundation Awards 2015" (PDF). Arts Foundation. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "Hollie McNish". YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Hollie Poetry: woman versus world – one poem at a time". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "Hue Stephens: Heavenly Records In The Studio". BBC Radio 1. BBC. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Words First: The launch event". BBC Radio 1XTRA. BBC. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  11. ↑ Presenter: Jenni Murray; Producer: Laura Northedge (10 February 2016). "Hollie McNish, Amy Cuddy, First love, Women's global health". Woman's Hour. 28:58 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Presenter: Jane Garvey; Producer: Erin Riley (25 October 2016). "Felicity Kendal, Icelandic feminism, Clothes on TV, Hollie McNish". Woman's Hour. 26:20 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "Ted Hughes Award". poetrysociety.org.uk. Poetry Society. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Hollie McNish wins the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry". poetrysociety.org.uk. Poetry Society. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Presenter: James Naughtie (15 June 2017). "Meet the Author: Hollie McNish". Meet the Author. BBC. BBC News Channel. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
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