In 2009 she won the William Sharpe Hunter Memorial Scholarship for her work on the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Creative Writing (Poetry). She is now reading for a PhD in Creative Writing with the University. Her first pamphlet collection, The Mermaid and the Sailors, was published by Red Squirrel Press in 2011 and shortlisted for a 2010 Eric Gregory Award. In 2012 Claire also won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. She works as a lecturer in Literature and Communication and a tutor of Creative Writing, and lives in Edinburgh with her extensive collection of manual typewriters.