Clare Best is possessed of the enviable gift of rendering elusive and difficult realities with stark and sensual beauty. Undaunted by the things that go unspoken in everyday life, her poetic voice is marked by a revelatory matter-of-factness brought to life through a concise and instinctive development of rhythm, image and sound.

In the words of celebrated poet Michael Hulse, 'Clare Best writes of the things of the world, and of the moments in our lives, as if they bear within them secrets of mortality that words will never quite have the power to reveal. She writes with scruple and clarity, listening always for the unsaid and the unsayable, watching for the passage of flame into darkness.'

Clare Best teaches creative writing for the University of Brighton and The Open University. She has published two collections, Treasure Ground (2009) and Excisions (2011). Her work has appeared in a range of journals including Resurgence, The London Magazine, Poetry News, Magma, The Warwick Review, The Rialto, as well as in several anthologies.