Carol Rumens, the British poet and longtime Guardian columnist, has died at the age of 81. Her family confirmed that she passed away peacefully on 25 April after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Life and Career
Born on 10 December 1944 in Forest Hill, south London, Rumens began a philosophy degree but left before completing it. She later earned a postgraduate diploma in writing for stage from City College Manchester. Her first poetry collection, A Strange Girl in Bright Colours, was published in 1973.
During the mid-1970s, she worked as an editor for the Croydon-based magazine Pick, before becoming poetry editor at Quarto and Literary Review in the early 1980s. Throughout the 1980s, she published several collections, including Star Whisper, The Greening of the Snow Beach, and her first volume of selected poems. She also collaborated on translated volumes of Russian poetry by poets such as Evgeny Rein and Irina Ratushinskaya.
Guardian Poem of the Week
Rumens began writing the Guardian's poem of the week column in October 2007. Over nearly two decades, she built a loyal readership, often engaging with comments. Her first choice was Far Rockaway by Iwan Llwyd, translated by Robert Minhinnick. She would go on to write almost 1,000 columns, featuring both well-known and lesser-known poets. Her final column, published in February, featured two poems by Matthew Rice. In 2019, a collection of 52 columns was published as Smart Devices.
Rumens described the process as "electrifying," saying, "To lift off from the launching pad of a poem, and bounce and float through the galaxies of Search... is as exciting as the process of writing a poem." She added, "I feel poets owe each other a duty of care. A poem isn't usually a butterfly or a mobile phone. It deserves a longer life."
Other Works and Achievements
Rumens wrote over a dozen poetry collections, including Animal People, De Chirico's Threads, and Blind Spots. She also wrote plays, fiction, criticism, and translated poetry. She taught at several universities, including the University of Hull, where she established an MA in creative writing, and the University of Bangor, where she was a visiting professor. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984, shortlisted twice for the Forward poetry prize, and won a Society of Authors Cholmondeley award.
