Dr Mary Jean Chan

Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (Creative Writing: Poetry)

Biography

Dr Mary Jean Chan is Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (Creative Writing: Poetry) on the MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. Chan is also a recent 2023-24 Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at the University of Cambridge and served as a judge for the Booker Prize in 2023.

Chan is the author of the poetry collection Flèche, published by Faber & Faber (2019) and Faber USA (2020). Flèche won the 2019 Costa Book Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. An Italian translation of Flèche by Giorgia Sensi was published by Interno Poesia in 2023.

Chan's second book, Bright Fear (Faber, 2023), is a Guardian Best Poetry Book of 2023 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Writers' Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize. Chan co-edited the acclaimed anthology 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022) with Andrew McMillan and co-wrote the pamphlet Siblings (Monitor Books, 2024), which was a 2024 Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice.  

Research and teaching interests

• Creative non fiction

• Creative writing

• Poetry
• Lyric essay

Publications

• Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan, Will Harris and Nisha Ramayya, Siblings, (Monitor Books, 2024)
• Mary Jean Chan, Bright Fear, (Faber, 2023)
• Mary Jean Chan, Flèche, (Faber & Faber, 2019; and Faber USA, 2020)