Welcome to the online archive of Linda Chase (1941 – 2011), the American poet and tutor of poetry and creative writing. Her three Carcanet Press titles are The Wedding Spy (2001), Extended Family (2006) and Not Many Love Poems (2011).

For much of her life Linda lived and worked in Manchester, UK, where she became a key player in the city’s thriving poetry scene. She also created an important artistic hub in the famous Village Hall in her own back garden – a place for poets, writers, musicians and students of martial arts to congregate and share work.

On this website you will find examples of Linda’s poetry, a publications list, sound recordings of Linda performing her own work, plus biographical information that includes her renowned work as a teacher of Tai Chi.

‘Deceptively informal, her verse is colloquial and uninhibited, both in subject and form…liberality of hand and spirit was Linda’s hallmark.’
Jeffrey Wainwright, the Guardian

‘Good things will continue happening in her name and spirit…Manchester became a poetry city not because of the university writing programmes…but because an expatriate American found a vocation there.’
Michael Schmidt, PN Review

Linda Chase obituary in the Guardian – by Jeffrey Wainwright
Editorial on Linda Chase in  PN Review – by Michael Schmidt