Career and writings

Griffiths was born in Exeter, England, and brought up in the Netherlands. She studied English at Oxford University, where she won the Newdigate prize

Newdigate prize

Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize is awarded to students of the University of Oxford for Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate who has been admitted to Oxford within the previous four years. It was founded by Sir Roger Newdigate, Bt in the 18th century...

 for her poem "The House". After working as a bookbinder in London and Norfolk, she returned to Oxford to gain a doctorate with a dissertation on the Tudor poet John Skelton

John Skelton

John Skelton, also known as John Shelton , possibly born in Diss, Norfolk, was an English poet.-Education:...

, and became an editor on the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

. Her poetry gained her an Eric Gregory Award

Eric Gregory Award

The Eric Gregory Award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30 on submission. The awards are up to a sum value of £24000 annually....

 in 1996.

Griffiths teaching at Oxford University’s St. Edmund Hall, before becoming a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. She was appointed a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Bristol

University of Bristol

The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

 in 2007. Her university page lists her research interests as medieval and renaissance poetics and concepts of literary authority, John Skelton and Stephen Hawes

Stephen Hawes

Stephen Hawes was a popular English poet during the Tudor period who is now little known. He was probably born in Suffolk owing to the commonness of the name in that area and, if his own statement of his age may be trusted, was born about 1474. It has been suggested that he was an illegitimate...

, the reception of medieval works in the Renaissance, and 20th-century poetry. It includes a full bibliography.

Her collection Another Country was short-listed for the 2008 Forward Poetry Prize.

Poetry volumes

• The House (Hitchin: Mandeville Press, 1990). ISBN 1870410122
• A Grip on Thin Air (Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2000). ISBN 1852245395
• Icarus on Earth (Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2005). ISBN 1852246952
• Another Country: New and Selected Poems (Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2008). ISBN 1852247942