Professor Heather Clark awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

Heather Clark, the University’s Professor of Contemporary Poetry, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 2022.

Professor Clark’s fellowship is in the category of American Literature and follows on from awards and acclaim she has received for Red Comet, her 2020 biography of writer Sylvia Plath.

Red Comet was named as one of the New York Times’ Books of the Year for 2021, and it was also shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography.

A Guggenheim Fellowship recognises a scholar’s achievements in their chosen field and allows them to pursue their research even further.

Professor Clark commented, "I am thrilled and grateful to have received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which will support the research and writing of my current book about the Boston years of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich and Maxine Kumin, as well as a new biography of Anne Sexton."

“Now that the past two years are hopefully behind all of us, it is a special joy to celebrate the Guggenheim Foundation’s new class of Fellows,” said Edward Hirsch, President of the Guggenheim Foundation and 1985 Fellow in Poetry. “This year marks the Foundation’s 97th annual Fellowship competition. Our long experience tells us what an impact these annual grants will have to change people’s lives. The work supported by the Foundation will aid in our collective effort to better understand the new world we’re in, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going. It is an honour for the Foundation to help the Fellows carry out their visionary work.”