Fiona Benson
Fiona Benson (born 1978) is an English poet. Her collections have been shortlisted for the T. Eliot Prize in 2014, 2019, and 2022. Vertigo and Ghost (2019) won the Forward Prize for Poetry for Best Collection.
Fiona Benson

Poets Players · Fiona Benson reads for Poets Players at the IABF on 24 September 2022 · CC BY 3.0
- Name
- Fiona Benson
- Born
- 1978
- Birthplace
- Wroughton, Wiltshire, England
- Occupation
- Poet
- Education
- University of St Andrews
- Spouse
- James Meredith
- Awards
- Forward Prize (2019)
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Honours
- Cholmondeley Award · Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
- Languages
- English
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Documentary summary
Fiona Benson (born 1978) is an English poet. Her collections have been shortlisted for the T. Eliot Prize in 2014, 2019, and 2022. Vertigo and Ghost (2019) won the Forward Prize for Poetry for Best Collection.
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Fiona Benson (born 1978) is a British poet and writer. The poet was born in Wroughton. Fiona Benson studied at University of St Andrews.
Languages used include English. The poet received Cholmondeley Award and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Fiona Benson • Born — 1978 • Birthplace — Wroughton, Wiltshire, England • Occupation — Poet • Education — University of St Andrews • Notable Works — Bright Travellers • Spouse — James Meredith • Children — 2 • Awards — Forward Prize (2019) • Honorific Suffix — FRSL
Biography
Biography
Benson was born in Wroughton, England. She received her Master of Letters and PhD in English from University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she wrote her dissertation on the Ophelia figure in early modern drama. She lives in Thorverton, Devon with her husband James Meredith and their daughters Isla and Rose. Benson was a recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. The award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30. Her work was included in Faber New Poets (2009) and her debut collection, Bright Travellers, was published in 2014 by Cape Poetry. Benson was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for her poetry collections Bright Travellers (2014), Vertigo and Ghost (2019), and Ephemeron (2022). The poem "Androgeus" was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. It comes from a long mythic sequence retelling the minotaur myth, which tries to reinstate Pasiphaë, the minotaur’s mother, at the centre of the story. This sequence is included in Ephemeron. In 2025, Benson published her fourth collection, Midden Witch. The volume deals with witchcraft, herbalism, folk tales, and motherhood, taking particular inspiration from the County Durham witch trials, the influence of which leads to the inclusion of various Durham dialect words in the poems.
Critical assessment
Critical assessment
Ben Wilkinson, in a review of Bright Travellers for The Guardian, describes Benson as "a poet whose dark imagination mixes solemnity with lyricism, treating the poem as a kind of secular prayer." Themes in Benson's work include "violence and loss, shown most vividly in her accounts of motherhood," which "are paired seamlessly with moments of great tenderness"
Work
Work
• Bright Travellers, Cape Poetry, (2014) • Vertigo and Ghost, Cape Poetry, (2019) • Ariadne, Broken Sleep Books, (2021) • Ephemeron, Jonathan Cape, (2022) • Midden Witch, Cape Poetry (2025)
Awards and recognition
Benson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2025. • Year — Title — Award — Category — Result — Ref. • 2006 — Eric Gregory Award • Faber New Poets Award • 2014 — Bright Travellers — T. S. Eliot Prize • 2015 — Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize • Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize • 2019 — Vertigo and Ghost — Forward Prizes for Poetry — Collection • T. S. Eliot Prize • 2020 — The Writers' Prize • 2021 — "Androgeus" — Forward Prizes for Poetry — Single Poem • 2022 — Ephemeron — T. S. Eliot Prize • 2023 — The Writers' Prize — Poetry
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Fiona Benson wins Forward prize with Greek myth poems for #MeToo age", Guardian 20 October 2019
- 2.Fiona Benson Forward Arts Foundation. www.forwardartsfoundation.org.
- 3.Interview: Fiona Benson. Granta Magazine.
- 4.Benson, Fiona. Vertigo and Ghost. Cape Poetry. 94. 2019. 9781787330818.
- 5.Wilkinson, Ben. Bright Travellers review – Fiona Benson's first collection of poetry. The Guardian. 2014-05-23. 0261-3077.
- 6.Forward Arts Foundation. Fiona Benson.
- 7.Mullen, Alice. BOOK OF THE WEEK: MIDDEN WITCH. The Poetry Book Society. 1 May 2025.
- 8.Wilkinson, Ben. Bright Travellers review – Fiona Benson's first collection of poetr. The Guardian.
- 9.Fiona Benson. The Confessional. The Economist.
- 10.Benson, Fiona. Royal Society of Literature. 2025-09-17.
- 11.Fiona Benson. Forward Arts Foundation.
- 12.Fiona Benson. The Poetry Society.
- 13.Poetry Book Society
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