{{Short description|British–Eritrean writer and journalist (born 1974)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}} {{Use British English|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Hannah Pool | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Hannah Azieb Pool | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}} | birth_place = near Keren, Ethiopia | death_date = | occupation = Writer, journalist | language = | nationality = British-Eritrean | alma_mater = Liverpool University | spouse = | children = }} '''Hannah Azieb Pool''' (born 1974) is a British–Eritrean writer and journalist. She was born near the town of Keren during the war for independence from Ethiopia. She is a former staff writer for ''The Guardian'' newspaper,<ref>Hannah Pool, [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/hannahpool ''The Guardian'' profile page.]</ref> and writes for national and international media. She is a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK.<ref>[http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com/patrons/ Patrons], SI Leeds Literary Prize. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113195227/http://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpress.com/patrons/ |date=13 November 2014 }}.</ref> Since 2019, Pool has been artistic director/CEO at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, north London.<ref name="Pool joins the BGAC">{{cite web|url=https://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/hannah-azieb-pool-joins-bernie-grant-arts-centre-as-artistic-director/|title=Hannah Azieb Pool Joins The Bernie Grant Arts Centre As Artistic Director|website=Bernie Grant Arts Centre|access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/welcome-back-to-the-bernie-grant-arts-centre/|title=Welcome back to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre|website=Bernie Grant Arts Centre|access-date=12 October 2024}}</ref>
== Early life and education == At the age of six months, Pool was adopted by a British scholar working in Sudan. At first she was raised in Khartoum and then Norway, before finally settling in Manchester, England. She grew up believing that her genetic parents had died shortly after her birth.<ref name="Guard">Ojumu, Akin, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/aug/14/biography.features1 "Ancestral voices"] (review of ''My Fathers' Daughter''), ''The Observer'', 14 August 2005.</ref> She was educated at Liverpool University, where she studied Sociology.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Fathers-Daughter-Hannah-Pool/dp/0241142601 Details of Pool's early life cited in her autobiography ''My Father's Daughter'' (2005).]</ref>
== Career == After leaving university, Pool became a journalist on the ''Manchester Evening News''. She has written extensively for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, where for several years she wrote the fashion column "The New Black".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/may/28/healthandwellbeing.beauty|title=The new black|first=Hannah|last=Pool|newspaper=The Guardian|date=28 May 2005}}</ref>
At the age of 19, she received a letter telling her that her genetic father and siblings were alive in Eritrea.<ref name="Guard" /> Her memoir, ''My Fathers' Daughter: A story of family and belonging'', was published in 2005 and is an account of the journey she made back to Eritrea, aged 29, and her encounters with her family.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Fathers-Daughter-Hannah-Pool/dp/0241142601 ''My Fathers' Daughter''] at Amazon Books.</ref>{{better|reason=Amazon is not an independent source|date=April 2026}}
Pool was a senior programmer of contemporary culture at the Southbank Centre, London. In February 2019, she became the artistic director/CEO at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham.<ref name="Pool joins the BGAC" /> She is founder of the Tottenham Literature Festival, is a trustee of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), serves on the Artist's Advisory Board of the Manchester International Festival and is also a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/30291/hannah-azieb-pool?tab=penguin-biography|title=Hannah Azieb Pool {{!}} Biography|publisher=Penguin Nooks Limited|access-date=12 October 2024}}</ref>
Pool is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''New Daughters of Africa'', edited by Margaret Busby.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://myriadeditions.com/authors/margaret-busby/new-daughters-at-bernie-grant-arts-centre/|title=New Daughters at Bernie Grant Arts Centre|publisher=Myriad|access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref>
== Bibliography == * ''My Fathers' Daughter'', London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 2005. {{ISBN|0241142601}}. {{ISBN|978-0241142608}} * ''Fashion Cities Africa'' (editor), University of Chicago Press, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1783206117}}<ref>[http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=5183/ "Fashion Cities Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914220528/https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=5183/ |date=14 September 2017 }} (review), Intellect.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.hannahpool.com/ Official website.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622162037/http://www.hannahpool.com/ |date=22 June 2018 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120621134127/http://www.arisemagazine.net/articles/talking-teds/101453/ Talking TEDs, ''Arise'' magazine, video.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pool, Hannah}} Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Liverpool Category:Black British women writers Category:Black British writers Category:21st-century British women journalists Category:English people of Eritrean descent Category:Eritrean women journalists Category:Eritrean women writers Category:People from Keren, Eritrea Category:The Guardian people Category:British women memoirists Category:21st-century British journalists