Alison Clara Tan

Alison Clara Tan is a Southeast Asian writer based in London. Her poetry appears in fourteen poems, wildness, The Kenyon Review, Gutter Magazine, Gulf Coast Journal and Washington Square Review, among others. She is a finalist for the 2026 Wasafiri New Writing Prize and has placed in the 2026 Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize. She is a Barbican Young Poet, a London Library Emerging Writer, a Brooklyn Poets Fellow, a member of the London Writers Centre's Poetics Lab, and has been a resident artist at the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking.

Selected Publications

Forthcoming

"Cauterise" in Wasafiri Magazine“Meditation at 25” in Glass: A Journal of Poetry“Carte Blanche” in Gulf Coast Journal"And Joshua" in Under the Radar

Selected

“Prayer for My Future Husband” in berlin lit“Record of First Love” in The Kenyon Review“A Really Modern House” in Washington Square Review“Clara” in wildness“Yoga Poem” in fourteen poems“Last night, I dreamt I went to Kelawar again” in Gutter Magazine“A Plastic Bottle Dreams At Sea” in Anthropocene“Essay on Rage” and “Broken Pantoum in Horses and Wave Interference” in Seaford Review“Tranexamic” and “Faith’s Room” in So to Speak Journal

Honours & Experience

Awards

Shortlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Poetry (2026)
Shortlisted for the Magma Open Poetry Pamphlet Competition (2026)
Runner-Up for the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize (2026)
Shortlisted for the Bridport Prize (2026)
Shortlisted for the Creative Future Writers' Award in Poetry (2026)

Collectives & Programmes

Selected for London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2026/27 CohortSelected for Barbican Young Poets 2025/26 CohortSelected for the London Writers Centre’s 2025 Poetics Lab Cohort

Fellowships

Awarded a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship (Fall 2025)

Residencies

Awarded an Artists Residency from the Hawkwood Centre of Future Thinking (2026)

Events

2026 Forward Prizes for Poetry (Opening Address)
London, Southbank Centre - 24 October 2026The Dance (Featured Reader)
London, The Grafton Pub - 12 August 2026

Commissions

In Response to Julia Phillips, Barbican Centre, 2026