About
Mary Jean Chan is the author of the poetry collection Flèche, published by Faber & Faber (2019) and Faber USA (2020). Flèche won the 2019 Costa Book Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. An Italian translation of Flèche by Giorgia Sensi was published by Interno Poesia in 2023.
Chan's second book, Bright Fear (Faber, 2023), is a Guardian Best Poetry Book of 2023 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Writers' Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize. Chan co-edited 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022) with Andrew McMillan and co-wrote Siblings (Monitor Books, 2024) with Jay Bernard, Will Harris and Nisha Ramayya. In 2023, Chan served as a judge for the Booker Prize. A recent Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow, Chan is currently Departmental Lecturer in Poetry on the Master of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
Poetry
Shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize
for Best Collection, the 2024 Writers' Prize
& the 2024 International Dylan Thomas Prize
A Poetry Book Society Recommendation
Reviews
Thoughtful clear-sightedness abounds in Bright Fear...it is exhilarating to read a poet so sure of their intent. – The New Statesman
Reading Bright Fear is like testing the blade of a knife and finding it exquisitely sharp. – The Guardian
Written with a quiet intimacy, Mary Jean Chan's second collection hums by your ear with gentle, inviting and formally inventive poetry. – The Dylan Thomas Prize
Winner of the 2019 Costa Poetry Award
A Poetry Book Society Recommendation
Reviews
One of those rare poets who leave you looking up with a sense that you can engage even the smallest part of the world around you with a much greater intensity. – PN Review
Extraordinary, brilliant and...beautifully governed by formal rigour and literary excellence. – The Poetry Review
As governing metaphor and organising principle...the sport [of fencing] provides enlivening strategies for the poetic realisation of loss and rebellion. – The Guardian
Prose
Selected Publications
Review of English Studies (2022)
Guardian Review (2022)
Guardian Books (2021)
Journal of British & Irish Innovative Poetry (2020)
Guardian Books (2019)
Journal of American Studies (2018)
Events
2024
20 Jan: Reading with Victoria Adukwei Bulley & Momtaza Mehri, Blackwell's, Oxford
31 Jan: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
8 Feb: Reading with Isobel Dixon, Shehzar Doja & others, The Glasgow Network of Poets
24 Feb: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, Magdalene Poetry Society, Cambridge
29 Feb: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan with Enora Lessinger, Daunt, Oxford
1 Mar: Judge, The Avril Gilchrist Bruten Award for Creative Writing, St Hugh's, Oxford
3 Mar: Speaker, On Wilderness and the Poetic Imagination, Wadham Chapel, Oxford
7-9 Mar: Speaker, Poetry's Englishes Symposium, Chinese University of Hong Kong
18 Mar: Interviewer, In Conversation with Diarmuid Hester, The Cambridge Festival
23 Mar: Reading, Poets and Players, The Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
24 Mar: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, MSt in Creative Writing, Oxford
28 Mar: Reading, Out-Spoken Poetry Live March Edition, Southbank Centre, London
4 Apr: Speaker, Mary Jean Chan & Phoebe Wang, The University of Orleans, France
11 Apr: Launch of Siblings with Jay Bernard, Will Harris & Nisha Ramayya, LRB, London
9 May: Reading, Mary Jean Chan & Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, Coronet Theatre, London
15 May: Reading, The 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist, Waterstones Piccadilly, London
23 May: Reading with Sean Hewitt & Harry Josephine Giles, International Lit Fest, Dublin
31 May: Faculty Reading with Rachael Allen & Sanah Ahsan, Faculty of English, Cambridge
4 June: Reading, Mary Jean Chan, Jazz Money & Ellen van Neerven, Trinity Hall, Cambridge
18 June: 100 Queer Poems with Andrew McMillan & Richard Scott, Foyles Bookshop, London
15 Aug: Siblings with Jay Bernard, Will Harris & Nisha Ramayya, Edinburgh Book Festival
5 Oct: Reading with Roger Robinson, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan & Jasmine Gardosi, Derby
13 Nov: Interview, On the 2024 Booker Prize winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey, France 24
18 Nov: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, Jesus College Herbert English Society, Oxford
4 Dec: Reading with Caleb Leow, Rency Raquid & Patrick McGuinness, St Edmund Hall, Oxford
2023
19 Feb: Moderator, 100 Queer Poems panel, The Verve Poetry Festival, Birmingham
24 Feb: Reading & Discussion, English & Comparative Literary Studies, Warwick
1 Mar: Reading, After Sylvia: Poets on Plath, The National Poetry Library, London
9 Mar: Reading, Mary Jean Chan, Keith Jarrett & Faryal Velmi, Reading University
11 Mar: Reading, Poets of Chinese Heritage, 2023 AWP conference, Seattle, US
14 Apr: Reading, Mary Jean Chan with Giorgia Sensi, Ritratti di Poesia, Rome, Italy
12 May: Reading with Kim Moore & Clare Shaw, The 2023 Newcastle Poetry Festival
22 May: Reading with Michael Symmons Roberts, Harris Manchester College, Oxford
11 July: Reading, Contemporary Queer Literature in Britain, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
28 July: Launch, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan with Andrew McMillan, LRB Bookshop
31 Aug: Reading by Mary Jean Chan, Asia Creative Writing Programme, Singapore
18 Sept: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, Topping & Co. Bookshop, Bath
21 Sept: Judge, Booker Prize shortlist event, The National Portrait Gallery, London
15 Oct: Reading with Jen Campbell & Kit Fan, The Durham Book Festival, Durham
16 Oct: Reading, The Forward Prizes for Poetry awards ceremony, Leeds Playhouse
21 Oct: Reading with Fiona Benson & Stephen Sexton, Seamus Heaney HomePlace
24 Oct: Reading with Mona Arshi & Bhanu Kapil, Pembroke College, Cambridge
28 Oct: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, The Wantage Literary Festival
30 Oct: Reading with Patrick James Errington & Fahad Al-Amoudi, Oxford Brookes
7 Nov: Reading, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan, Topping & Co. Bookshop, Edinburgh
20 Nov: Reading with Rachael Allen, Ishion Hutchinson & Daljit Nagra, The Bindery
26 Nov: Judge, The 2023 Booker Prize winner ceremony, Old Billingsgate, London
5 Dec: Talk, The Booker Prize: Mary Jean Chan with Enora Lessinger, Oxford Brookes
Media
Readings and Interviews
January 2020
Faber & Faber
February 2023
The National Centre for Writing
November 2023
Poetology
Press
Interviews and Reviews
Radio and Podcasts
Contact