Val Warner

Valerie Margaret Warner
Born	(1946-01-15)January 15, 1946 Harrow, London, England
Died	October 10, 2020(2020-10-10) (aged 74) Hackney, London, England
Occupation	Poet editor translator
Alma mater	Somerville College, Oxford

Val Warner was a poet, editor and translator who was best known for helping to increase the salience of poet Charlotte Mew's work. ^[1]

Warner was the only child of two schoolteachers and grew up in Harrow, London. She went on to study modern history at Somerville College, Oxford. ^[1]

She initially found work as a school librarian and freelance copy-editor ^[1] before holding the posts of Creative Writing Fellow at Swansea University and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Dundee. ^[2]

As well as publishing her own poetry collections, Warner also published a translation of The Centenary Corbière by Tristan Corbière in 1975 ^[3] and an edition of Charlotte Mew's collected poems and prose in 1981. Along with other scholarly work in the 1980s, this collection helped in renewing wider interest in Mew's work. ^{[1] [4] [5]}

Warner became increasingly reclusive in the last years of her life. ^[1] She sold a house in Harrow that she had inherited from her parents and then subsequently moved to a late-Victorian terraced house in Hackney where she continued to live for the rest of her life. ^[2] The house lacked running water, heating and cooking facilities. She survived on a diet of raw onions, soya mince and chickpeas. ^[3]

Her body was discovered after a forced entry into her house by police on 10 October 2020, ^[3] due to a concerned friend contacting them about a lack of a communication with her. ^[1] She had died alone and no ascertainable cause of death was reported by the coroner after an autopsy was conducted in November 2020. ^{[1] [2]}

Awards and recognition

Warner received the Eric Gregory Award in 1975 ^[6] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1998. ^[3]

Bibliography

• Warner, Val (1971). These Yellow Photos. Carcanet Press. ISBN   9780902145269.
• Warner, Val (1973). Under The Penthouse. Carcanet Press. ISBN   9780902145870.
• Mew, Charlotte (1982). Warner, Val (ed.). Charlotte Mew: Collected Poems and Prose. Virago Press. ISBN   9780860682233.
• Warner, Val (1986). Before Lunch. Carcanet Press. ISBN   9780856356292.
• Warner, Val (1998). Tooting Idyll. Carcanet Press. ISBN   9781857543339.
• Mew, Charlotte (2003). Warner, Val (ed.). Collected Poems and Selected Prose of Charlotte Mew. Routledge. ISBN   9780415967570.
• Corbiere, Tristan; Warner, Val (2006). The Centenary Corbière. Carcanet Press. ISBN   9781857547115.

References

1. Craig, Patricia (2020-11-02). "Val Warner obituary". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-09-11.
2. "PN Review Print and Online Poetry Magazine - Val Warner: A Reminiscence - Patricia Craig - PN Review 259". www.pnreview.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
3. "Val Warner". Royal Society of Literature. September 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
4. Parker, Sarah (2023-01-02). "This Rare Spirit: A Life of Charlotte Mew: by Julia Copus, London: Faber & Faber, 2021. 464pp., £25, ISBN 9780571313532". Women's Writing. 30 (1): 78–80. doi: 10.1080/09699082.2021.1985236 . ISSN   0969-9082.
5. Merrin, Jeredith (1997). "The Ballad of Charlotte Mew" . Modern Philology. 95 (2): 200–217. doi:10.1086/392474. ISSN   0026-8232. JSTOR   438989.
6. "Eric Gregory Awards - The Society of Authors". 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2023-09-11.