Poet laureate

Style

Part of Duffy's talent — besides her ear for ordinary eloquence, her gorgeous, powerful, throwaway lines, her subtlety — is her ventriloquism. Like the best of her novelist peers ... she slides in and out of her characters' lives on a stream of possessions, aspirations, idioms and turns of phrase. However, she is also a time-traveller and a shape-shifter, gliding from Troy to Hollywood, galaxies to intestines, sloughed-off skin to department stores while other poets make heavy weather of one kiss, one kick, one letter ... from verbal nuances to mind-expanding imaginative leaps, her words seem freshly plucked from the minds of non-poets — that is, she makes it look easy.

In schools

Plays and songs

• 1983: National Poetry Competition 1st prize (for Whoever She Was)
• 1983 Greenwich Poetry Competition ("for Words of Absolution")
• 1984: Eric Gregory Award
• 1986: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for Standing Female Nude)
• 1988: Somerset Maugham Award (for Selling Manhattan)
• 1989: Dylan Thomas Prize
• 1990: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for The Other Country
• 1992: Cholmondeley Award
• 1993: Whitbread Awards (for Mean Time)
• 1993: Scottish Arts Council Book Award (for Mean Time)
• 1993: Forward Prize (for Mean Time)
• 1995: OBE
• 1995: Lannan Award
• 1999: Signal Children's Poetry Prize
• 2001: National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts Award
• 2002: CBE
• 2005: T S Eliot Prize (for Rapture)

• 1974: Fleshweathercock and Other Poems. Outposts ltd.
• 1977: (with Adrian Henri) Beauty and the Beast (poetry)
• 1982: Fifth Last Song. Headland (poetry)
• 1982: Take My Husband (play)
• 1984: Cavern of Dreams (play)
• 1985: Standing Female Nude. Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1986: Little Women, Big Boys (play)
• 1986: Loss (radio play)
• 1986: Thrown Voices. Turret Books, pamphlet (poetry)
• 1987: Selling Manhattan. Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1990: The Other Country. Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1992: I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine (ed.) Viking (poetry anthology)
• 1992: William and the Ex-Prime Minister. Anvil Press Poetry, pamphlet, (poetry).
• 1993: Mean Time Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1994: Anvil New Poets Volume 2. (Ed.) Penguin (poetry anthology)
• 1994: Selected Poems. Penguin (poems)
• 1995: Penguin Modern Poets 2 with Vicki Feaver and Eavan Boland. Penguin. (Poetry)
• 1996: Grimm Tales. Faber and Faber. (Play)
• 1996: Salmon - Carol Ann Duffy: Selected Poems. Salmon Poetry. (Poetry)
• 1996: Stopping for Death. Viking (poetry anthology)
• 1997: More Grimm Tales. Faber and Faber (children's play)
• 1998: The Pamphlet. Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1999: Meeting Midnight. Faber and Faber (children's poetry)
• 1999: The World's Wife Anvil Press Poetry (poetry)
• 1999: Time's Tidings: Greeting the 21st Century. (Ed.) Anvil Press Poetry (poetry anthology)
• 2000: The Oldest Girl in the World. Faber and Faber (children's poetry)
• 2001: Hand in Hand: An Anthology of Love Poems. (Ed.) Picador (poetry anthology)
• 2002: Feminine Gospels. Picador
• 2002: Queen Munch and Queen Nibble., Macmillan Children's Books.
• 2002: Underwater Farmyard. Macmillan Children's Books. (Children's book)
• 2003: The Good Child's Guide to Rock N Roll. Faber and Faber. (Children's poetry)
• 2003: Collected Grimm Tales (with Tim Supple). Faber and Faber. (Children's book)
• 2004: Doris the Giant. (Children's literature, picture book)
• 2004: New Selected Poems. Picador
• 2004: Out of Fashion: An Anthology of Poems. (Ed.) Faber and Faber (poetry anthology)
• 2004: Overheard on a Saltmarsh: Poets' Favourite Poems (Ed.) Macmillan
• 2005: Another Night Before Christmas with John Murray. (Children's poetry)
• 2005: Moon Zoo. Macmillan (children's literature, picture book)
• 2005: Rapture Picador (poetry)
• 2006: The Lost Happy Endings (illustrated by Jane Ray). Penguin. (Children's book)
• 2007: Answering Back. (Ed.) Picador. (Poetry anthology)
• 2007: The Hat. Faber and Faber. (Children's poetry)
• 2007: The Tear Thief. Barefoot Books. (Children's book)
• 2009: Mrs Scrooge: A Christmas Poem (illustrated by Beth Adams). Simon & Schuster
• 2009: New & Collected Poetry for Children. Faber and Faber. (Poetry)
• 2009: The Princess's Blankets (illustrated by Catherine Hyde). Templar. (Children's book)
• 2009: The Twelve Poems of Christmas. (Ed.) Candlestick Press. (Poetry)
• 2009: To The Moon: An Anthology of Lunar Poetry. (Editor) Picador. (Poetry)
• 2009: Love Poems. Picador. (Poetry, selected).

• Michelis, Angelica and Antony Rowland (eds). The Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy: Choosing Tough Words. Manchester University Press, 2003.
• Randolph, Jody. "Remembering Life before Thatcher: Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy." Women's Review of Books 12.8, May 1995.