Anna Adams

Anna Adams (9 March 1926 – 2 October 2011) was an English poet and artist.

Biography

Anna Adams was born Anna Theresa Butt on 9 March 1926, at Richmond, Surrey. When she was two years old, her family relocated to Northwood, a town fifteen miles northwest of London. She was the youngest of three children. Her father was a journalist. During the First World War he had been a conscientious objector.

At the age of thirteen, Adams won a scholarship to Harrow School of Art, where she obtained the National Diploma in Design (NDiD) in painting in 1945. She continued to use her maiden name for her art work. After college she took a job as a part-time teacher.

She had always shown an interest in writing, and by 1961, Adams had begun to write seriously in both prose and verse. Her first poem was printed in 1969. Peterloo Press published her first book, A Reply to Intercepted Mail, in 1979 as part of its Peterloo Poets series. She had already published several small pamphlets, or chapbooks, and she continued to produce various shorter publications throughout her career. In all, she published about twenty books and pamphlets. Many of her poems appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals, including Poetry Review, P. N. Review, The Countryman, 10th Muse, Western Mail, Poetry Durham, Poetry Canada, Encounter, Orbis, The Spectator, The North, and Yorkshire Journal. Adams's honors included several first prizes in the Yorkshire Poets competition and the 1976 Arnold Vincent Bowen Prize.

Adams was poetry editor of The Green Book from 1989 to 1992. She was a member of the Poetry Society and the Piccadilly Poets Committee.