Helen Clare is a poet captivated by the patterns and patterning of science. She began her career as a Biology teacher, and her writing continues to delight in the whorls and sprung-coils of our physical lives. Even her most human, relationship poems are coloured with the intricacy of a cross-section, the emotional strata of a dissector’s imagination.
Helen’s work was featured in Faber’s First Pressings anthology in 1998, which heralded a new generation of British poets. Her poems have since won a number of national prizes and commendations, including First Prize in the London Writers Competition 2002, First Prize in the Yorkshire Open 1999, a Joint Winner in the Lancaster Litfest Competition and Runner Up in the Daily Telegraphy/Arvon Competition 2000. Her poems have also appeared in numerous magazines including Rialto, North, Ambit, Smoke, Brando’s Hat, Manhattan Review, and Nth Position (website).
Having graduated from Lancaster University's Creative Writing Programme with distinction, she now teaches Creative Writing for their Department of Continuing Education and is a freelance consultant in creativity and science education.