Emily Berry

Emily Berry FRSL
Born	1981 (age 43–44) London, England
Occupation	Poet
Education	University of Leeds Goldsmiths College University of East Anglia
Notable works	Dear Boy (2013) Stranger Baby (2017) Unexhausted Time (2022)
Notable awards	Forward Prizes for Poetry

Emily Berry FRSL (born 1981) is an English poet and writer.

Early life

Berry was born and raised in London and studied English literature at Leeds University, and Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. As of 2017, she was completing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. ^[1]

Career

She was one of five to be awarded an Eric Gregory Award in 2008. ^[2] Her pamphlet Stingray Fevers was published by tall-lighthouse in 2008. ^[3] Her debut collection of poems, Dear Boy (2013), won the Hawthornden Prize and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second collection, entitled Stranger, Baby, was published by Faber & Faber in 2017. ^[3] Her third collection, Unexhausted Time, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022. ^[4]

She is a contributor to collections and anthologies such as The Breakfast Bible (Bloomsbury, 2013).

From 2017 until 2022, Berry was the editor of The Poetry Review , the UK's most widely read poetry magazine. Berry succeeded Maurice Riondan in the role. ^[1]

In June 2018 Berry was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative. ^{[5] [6]}

Awards

Year	Book	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2008	—	Eric Gregory Award	—	Won	[2]
2014	Dear Boy	Forward Prize	First Collection	Won	[3]
		Hawthornden Prize	—	Won	[3]
2015		Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize	—	Shortlisted

Biblio

• —— (2013). Dear Boy. Faber & Faber.
• —— (2017). Stranger, Baby. Faber & Faber.
• —— (2022). Unexhausted Time. Faber & Faber.

References

1. Baker, Sophie. "Emily Berry is the new Editor of The Poetry Review". The Poetry Society. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
2. "Eric Gregory Past Authors". Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
3. "Emily Berry (poet)". Poetry International Web. Archived from the original on 16 September 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
4. Faber & Faber. "Unexhausted Time - Emily Berry".
5. Flood, Alison (28 June 2018). "Royal Society of Literature admits 40 new fellows to address historical biases". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 8 July 2025.
6. "Berry, Emily". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2025.