{{Short description|Scottish poet (1956–2017)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox writer | Helen Lamb = | birth_date = 1956 | death_date = 27 March 2017 | nationality = Scottish | genre = Poetry, Short stories, Fiction | partner = Chris Powici | awards = Scotland on Sunday Women 2000 Prize }} '''Helen Lamb''' (1956–27 March 2017) was an award-winning Scottish poet and short story writer who also worked with the cancer caring Maggie's Centres in the Forth Valley promoting the role of writing in well-being.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowships/helen-lamb/|title=Helen Lamb|website=The Royal Literary Fund|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-05}}</ref>
== Personal life == Lamb was a writer, educator, mother and grandmother <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegrantidote.com/helen|title=Helen|website=The Grantidote|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-05}}</ref> who lived in Dunblane with Chris Powici,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/chris-powici/|title=Chris Powici {{!}} Poet|website=Scottish Poetry Library|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-05}}</ref> who is also a poet, former editor of literary magazine Northwords and a teaching fellow at the University of Stirling.
== Career == Her poetry has been published in literary journals and in the joint anthology ''Strange Fish''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Strange fish|last=Gibson, Magi|date=1997|publisher=Duende|others=Lamb, Helen.|isbn=1-900537-03-6|location=Glasgow|oclc=46333149}}</ref> along with fellow poet Magi Gibson. She also published a short story collection entitled ''Superior Bedsits'' and many of her stories were broadcast on radio.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Superior bedsits, and other stories|last=Lamb, Helen|date=2001|publisher=Polygon|isbn=0-7486-6306-1|location=Edinburgh|oclc=49894371}}</ref> Her work has been featured in other general anthologies<ref name=":0" /> and she was one of the writers included in ''Working Words: Scottish creative writing'', which was designed to promote creative writing in schools.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Working words|last=Thornton, Valerie|date=1995|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=0-340-61870-1|location=London|oclc=33188219}}</ref> Her poem "Spell of the Bridge" was one of those reproduced on a postcard for National Poetry Day in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/tag/national_poetry_day_2007/|title=National Poetry Day 2007 Archives|website=Scottish Poetry Library|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> Lamb worked at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, tutoring in creative writing.<ref name=":0" /> As well as working with cancer charity Maggie's Centres, Lamb also worked with adult survivors of childhood abuse, editing anthologies of their writings.<ref name=":0" /> She died suddenly in 2017 shortly after finishing her first novel ''Three Kinds of Kissing'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Three kinds of kissing|last=Lamb, Helen|date=2018|publisher=Vagabond Voices|isbn=978-1-908251-91-6|location=Glasgow, Scotland|oclc=1048095478}}</ref> described by fellow author Tracey Emerson as "a subtly devastating wonder".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/65609346-three-kinds-of-kissing|title=Three Kinds of Kissing|website=www.goodreads.com|access-date=2020-02-12}}</ref>
==Awards== Lamb won the ''Scotland on Sunday''/Women 2000 prize for her story "Long Grass, Moon City".
== Publications == thumb|Examples of Helen Lamb's poetry can be found in the Scottish Poetry Library and on their website: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/<nowiki/>website.<nowiki/>|200x200px
=== Works ===
*''Strange Fish'' (1997), with Magi Gibson *''Superior Bedsits : and other stories'' (Polygon 2001) *''Three Kinds of Kissing'' (2018)
=== Anthologies ===
*''Original prints : New writing from Scottish women''. Vol. 4. (1992) *''Working words'' / Valerie Thornton. (1995) * ''Different boundaries'' / edited by Barbara Weightman and Elsie MacRae. (1995) *''Last things first'' / edited by A.L. Kennedy and James McGonigal. (1995) *''After the Watergaw : a collection of new poetry from Scotland inspired by water'' / edited by Robert Davidson. (1998) *''Friends and kangaroos'' / edited by Moira Burgess and Donny O'Rourke. (1999) *''Across the water : Irishness in modern Scottish writing'' / edited by James McGonigal, Donny O'Rourke & Hamish Whyte. (2000) *''Going up Ben Nevis in a bubble car'' / edited by Moira Burgess and Janet Paisley. (2001) *''Milking the haggis'' / edited by Valerie Thornton and Hamish Whyte. (2004) *''The Edinburgh book of twentieth-century Scottish poetry'' / edited by Maurice Lindsay and Lesley Duncan. (2005) *''The thing that mattered most : Scottish poems for children'' / edited by Julie Johnstone. (2006) *''The dynamics of balsa'' / edited by Liz Niven and Brian Whittingham. (2007) *''Bucket of frogs'' / edited by Liz Niven and Brian Whittingham. (2008) *''Songs of other places'' / edited by Gerry Cambridge and Zoë Strachan. (2014)
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, Helen}} Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Scottish women poets Category:20th-century Scottish poets Category:Scottish novelists Category:21st-century Scottish novelists Category:1956 births Category:2017 deaths Category:20th-century Scottish women writers Category:20th-century British women poets