About

I teach on the BA (Hons) Creative Writing programme.

Research interests

I am a narrative and lyric poet and performer.

My creative practice touches on edge-land landscapes, human predicaments (especially the marginalised or disenfranchised), and the relationship between voice, personae, and place.

My influences are catholic, including the classics in translation, Romantic, Modernist and contemporary poetry, New Nature Writing, and Psychogeography.

I have a special interest in the works of Homer, William Wordsworth, Ted Hughes, Philip Levine, Derek Walcott, Peter Reading, Ferdinand Pessoa, and Rebecca Solnit.

I often work in creative collaboration and have experimented with presenting poetry in alternative formats - through performance, podcasts, text installation, and art-objects.

I am especially interested in curated performance involving multiple voices, and sound recording in the landscape.

Recent publications

Chapbooks:

• Lost Between Stations (1), Northern Lights, 2000
• Nobody Sonnets, Longbarrow Press, 2006
• Officer, Longbarrow Press, 2007
• Edgelands, Longbarrow Press, 2008
• Lost Between Stations (2), Longbarrow Press, 2010

Books:

• West North East, Longbarrow Press, 2013
• The Navigators, Longbarrow Press, 2015

Selected Installations:

• ‘Divinings’, Sunderland University, 2001
• ‘Chalk’, for Line Break, Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2009
• ‘Letter to a Cancer Researcher’, Cardiff University Hospital, 2010
• ‘Cave Time and Sea Changes’, Blok Studios, 2014
• Selected Films, Podcasts, and Recordings:
• ‘Fugue #3: Crossgates’
• ‘A Trance Walk with Muso Soseki’
• ‘Cave Time and Sea Changes’

Professional interests

I am a creative writing teacher and freelance writer, with a background in literature development. From 1999 to 2001 I was a poet in residence for the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere. I have worked as a youth development officer for Leeds Central Library, and as a project manager for Signposts Literature Development Project, Sheffield.

From 2003-2006 I was a strategic literature officer for Arts Council England, East Midlands. I have facilitated creative writing workshops in primary and secondary schools, and have taught creative writing for Sheffield Lifelong Learning and the Open College of Arts.

In 2015 I became a committee member of the Ted Hughes Project, Mexborough, and (with Dr. Simon Heywood) I host the Co-Conspirators creative salon in Derby. 

Qualifications

MA Creative Writing (distinction), Hallam Univeristy, 2013.

Recent conferences

Selected Performances:

• ‘Chinese Lanterns’, Sheffield Poetry Festival, 2014
• ‘Personae and Place’, Ledbury Poetry Festival, 2015
• ‘A Navigation’, Ted Hughes Poetry Festival, Mexborough, 2015
• ‘Four Landscapes’, South Bank Centre, 2015

Experience in industry

• Freelance writing and workshop facilitation, 1999-present
• Youth development, Leeds Central Libary, 2001-2002
• Literature development and project management, Signposts Literature Development Project Sheffield, 2002-2004
• Strategic arts development and grants assessment, Arts Council England East Midlands, 2003-2006

Teaching responsibilities