Greta Stoddart was born in Oxfordshire and grew up in Belgium and Oxford. 

 

She studied Drama at Manchester University and acting at the Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. 

 

Returning to the UK, she lived in London for 17 years, co-founding the theatre company Brouhaha, with whom she co-wrote and performed 3 shows touring UK, Europe and Mexico, winning the Prix d’Or at the Festival de Villard de Lans, France in 1992.

 

Greta began poetry classes with Michael Donaghy in 1993 at the City University in London and then at the Poetry School.

 

Over the next few years her poems were published in magazines and newspapers including The Independent, TLS, Poetry Review, The Spectator and The Sunday Times.

 

In 2001 Anvil Press published her first collection At Home in the Dark which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize

 

Greta began teaching at Morley College in London before going on to teach at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She become a Poetry Fellow at Warwick University, Creative Writing tutor at Bath Spa University and Writer-in-Residence at Exeter University.

​

Her second collection Salvation Jane (Anvil) was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Book Award and her third Alive Alive O (Bloodaxe) was shortlisted for the 2016 Roehampton Poetry Prize.