Paula Claire

Paula Claire (born 1939, Northampton, England) is a British Poet-Artist, whose work spans the areas of sound, visual, concrete and performance poetry. She was associated with the British Poetry Revival Movement in the 1970s and a member of Konkrete Canticle, a poetry collective founded by Bob Cobbing, which performed works for multiple voices and instruments. She has performed and exhibited her poetry internationally since 1969, creating site-specific performance pieces and using the voice contributions of her audience. She is founder and curator of the Paula Claire Archive: fromWORDtoART - International Poet-Artists, a collected body of work by fellow poet-artists.

Early life

Paula Claire was brought up in Northamptonshire and educated at Notre Dame High School. She took part in the annual choral speaking and singing at the local Eisteddfod, so when at University College London, reading English Language/Literature (graduated 1960) she automatically joined the University choir. Giving a carol concert under the dome of St Paul's Cathedral was a hugely influential experience. The sound of words uttered by many voices melded with music; the appearance of language as an expression of art; these twin aspects became the foundations of her work begun 4 May 1961.

She decided to use her first two names as her nom de plume in honour of John Clare the Northamptonshire poet because she played in Northampton grounds and spinneys he frequented in the last 20 years of his life.

In 1964 she went with a college friend to Athens and began teaching English as a foreign language with the endorsement of the British Council.