I’m a poet, poetry workshop leader, teacher and mentor. I believe in the power of words and in sharing that power with others.
I lead poetry workshops in secondary schools and am currently Patron of Writing at Didcot Girls’ School and St Birinus School . I am a registered Poet in Schools with The Poetry Society and a member of The Society of Authors. I also run poetry courses for adults and do 1-to-1 mentoring and editorial work with individual poets.
I have a background in teaching and have taught in a wide spectrum of settings, from hidden gem community centres to bursting-at-the-seams secondary schools. I have an MA in Writing Poetry from The Poetry School/Newcastle University and I was nominated for Best Single Poem in the Forward Prize, 2020.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
*New poetry chapbook for 2021*
five-point-palm
“This narrative sequence, which takes its title from the infamous Tarantino Kill Bill films, doesn’t hold back. Here, hearts are buried, stabbed, amputated, shot, eaten, numbed and burned (among other things).”
“five-point-palm is audacious, darkly funny, and a complete bloodbath” – Clare Pollard
Now available from The Red Ceilings Press or contact me to order a signed copy.
I’m delighted to be partnering with novelist Chris Bonnello, in the new Writing East Midlands pilot project, Beyond The Spectrum, connecting professional, autistic poets and authors with autistic young writers across the East Midlands. Read more about this exciting new project, here.
My debut poetry pamphlet, Winter with Eva, came out in 2020 with V Press. Winter with Eva is the kind of poetry sequence that you’ll want to sit down and read through, in one sitting. Watch me read a ‘Winter with Eva’ poem-a-day, via my Lockdown blog.
“Winter with Eva is … lucid, coherent, and set in the all too recognisable culture of Brexit Britain and its whipped-up hatred of the other… There are many fine images and lucid lines, especially the innovative ‘Whiteout’. I liked the quirky tenderness in ‘Earbud’ and ‘Creation’; the latter also contains rhythmical, visceral language for making art.” (- Sarah Law, The Poetry School review.)
“This is a love story so sensual that you can smell autumn leaves on the ground and taste snow on your lips. You may well read this in one sitting because it’s like watching a studio theatre production.” (- Candyce Lange, Happenstance Press. Read the whole review, here: Sphinx )
The book is “very human, very conscious” (- V Press); “a poignant but tough love story told against the backdrop of Brexit-era England…” (- Tamar Yoseloff)
Read one of the poems from the sequence here, and order your copy here.
Photo: Flourished @ Bold Tendencies: by Sophie Collins & Sam Riviere