40 Years of Women: Roz Kaveney

Roz Kaveney (English, 1968) is a writer, critic, and activist, best known for her commentary on pop culture and for her poetry including a verse translation of Catullus. She read English at Pembroke from 1968, and while here won the English Faculty’s Charles Oldham Shakespeare prize.

Roz is a regular contributor to the Guardian and The Times Literary Supplement. Her novel Tiny Pieces of Skull won the 2016 Best Trans Fiction Lambda Literary Award. She is a former deputy chair of Liberty, the National Council for Civil Liberties, and is active as an advocate for trans civil rights.

Q. How has Pembroke influenced or contributed to your career?

A. I studied with Douglas Gray and J.D.Fleeman - Douglas taught me to enjoy literature with passion and wit and JD taught me - through his own fascination with Samuel Johnson - to value precision - 'to think reasonably is to think morally'.

Q. Where do you find the inspiration for writing your poetry?

A. Love and other people's artistic work.

Q. A favourite memory from Pembroke?

A. Arriving and feeling the future open up in front of me.