It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal.

Poetry and prayer are very similar.

I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.

I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.

Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.

You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.