Education
University of Durham. University of East Anglia.
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Christina Patterson
Edit ProfileCareer
Now a freelance, she was formerly a writer and columnist at The Independent. After graduating in English from Durham University and then undertaking an Master of Arts at the University of East Anglia, Patterson initially worked in publishing. From 1990, she was the literary programmer at the Southbank Centre, presenting hundreds of literary events.
In 1998, she ran the Poetry Society’s National Lottery-funded Poetry Places scheme, enabling poetry residencies and placements.
In 2000 she was appointed Director of the Poetry Society. After 1998, Patterson worked as a freelance journalist contributing to The Observer, The Sunday Times and magazines including Time, The Spectator and the New Statesman.
She has contributed to a number of books, including The Cambridge Guide To Women's Writing and the Forward Poetry Anthology 2001, in addition to The Huffington Post. She took redundancy from The Independent in 2013 as a result of cuts in its editorial budget.
Patterson has investigated nursing, a profession she has personally found uncaring, in a series of articles for The Independent, and a programme for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Four Thoughts series, an essay which Guardian reviewer Elisabeth Mahoney found "compellingly written and studded with rhetorical flourishes and unpalatable assertions".
Patterson though has faced criticism for pieces which have been considered antisemitic. A July 2010 column about her ultra-orthodox Charedi Jewish neighbours in Stamford Hill, London, led to her comments being on a Top 10 list from the Simon Weisenthal Centre of that year"s most notable antisemitic slurs. Yes, calling for Jews to be burned to death is anti-Semitic, but asking Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill to be a little more polite is not.".
Achievements
Politics
Patterson joined The Independent in 2003, writing on politics, society, culture, books, travel and the arts She was responsible for the paper"s weekly Arts interview, and had periods there as deputy literary editor and assistant comment editors
Views
This incident led the historian Guy Walters to defend Patterson, arguing that her inclusion in the list "is manifesting far more intolerance than anything she ever wrote.
Membership
She is a regular participant in The Review Show (British Broadcasting Corporation Two) as a member of its panel. A supporter of the British Humanist Association, Patterson is also a member of team at the Nottingham Trent University"s "Writers for the Future" programme.
