Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was an English short-story writer and poet. Born in Bloomsbury into a middle-class Victorian family, her work was published and admired in both the UK and America. The first and only book of poems to appear in her lifetime, The Farmer's Bride, came out in 1916 when she was in her mid-forties. On the strength of it, Mew was awarded a Civil List pension, with recommendations from three of her most ardent admirers: Poet Laureate John Masefield, Walter de la Mare and Thomas Hardy.
Julia Copus has published four collections of poetry and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Costa Book awards. Her most recent collection, Girlhood, was published by Faber in 2019 and was the inaugural winner of the USA's Derek Walcott Prize for best poetry collection by a non-US citizen. Other awards include First Prize in the UK's National Poetry Competition and the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.