Subject strengths: Literature, Contemporary Literature, Poetry

Selima Hill (b. 1945), was educated at Cambridge, and published her first collection of poems, Saying Hello at the Station, in 1984, securing a Cholmondeley Award in 1986 and winning the Arvon/Observer Competition in 1988. Since then she has published fifteen further collections, and three more are presently in preparation and scheduled for publication over the coming few years. Violet (1997) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award; Bunny (2001) won the Whitbread Award; and People who like Meatballs (2012) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She has worked as a fellow at Exeter University (2004-6), and a tutor at the Poetry School, and has run frequent workshops and courses in prisons and hospitals, and collaborated on a number of multimedia productions. Though it has not until recently been public knowledge, Hill suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, and one of the strengths of the present archive is the insight it allows into her personal experience of autism and its impact on her poetry. Her collection comprises of over 120 notebooks kept since she was a teenager, drafts, correspondence and three boxes of postcards, mostly of a perosnal nature.

 

Collection Name and Collection Reference Code:

Collection Name: Hill (Selima) Archive

Archive Ref Code: GB186/SH

Date Range of Material

1950-2016

Type of Material

Personal archive of Selima Hill.

Size of Collection

43 boxes

How To Order Items From This Collection

Please use the finding aid below to search through a list of the individual items we have within this collection.

If you find an item you would like to consult in the Special Collections reading room, simply make a note of the reference number and title of the item(s) you are interested in (for example SH/4/3 Notebook dated c. 1960).

You can then place your order by linking to our Request Form. 

Finding Aid 

Archival catalogue available via the Archives Hub.

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Other Resources

Material from this archive has been included in an exhibition 'Contemporary Poetry Collections: Poets and their Archives'.