I was one of the first to gain a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Sussex, and went on to teach there until 2010 when I joined York St John University. My latest poetry collection The Glass Delusion (Salt, 2012) was a winner of the 2013 Somerset Maugham Award.
My latest work is a climate change novel, Water & Glass (Cloud Lodge, 2017).
In 2004 I received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors for poets under 30, and my first collection, Unexpected Weather, was the winner of Salt Publishing's inaugural Crashaw Prize and was shortlisted for the London Festival Fringe Poetry Award 2010.
My work often engages with other disciplines, such as visual art, science and history: a recent project was the result of collaboration with the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum. As well as writing poetry, I write fiction and have an interest in psychoanalysis. My writing explores such topics as mushrooms in Freud, the power of the squid in literature, and the relationship between poetry and ventriloquism. I have also written on the role of the unconscious in the teaching of creative writing.
Visit my author website.
I teach on the Creative Writing MFA and MA courses and supervise PhDs in Creative Writing. I am also the Research and Knowledge Transfer Lead for the School of Humanities.
Subject specialisms include: writing and the environment, the elegiac, poetry, short fiction, novel writing, critical and creative writing, speculative fiction, writing and motherhood, animal studies, psychoanalysis and post-humanism.
Postgraduate supervision
I am interested in supervising research and/or creative projects in speculative fiction, the question of the animal in fiction or poetry, eco/climate-change writing, elegy and mourning. I am also interested in psychoanalysis and literature.
Please see the York St John website for further details on practice-based PhD study or on the MFA in Creative Writing.
Recent publications
I have collaborated on the following projects:
The Republic of Parenthood, with Professor Vanessa Corby, a symposium of events exploring creativity and parenthood, including an art exhibition, writing workshops, film screenings and anthologies of poetry and prose. Themes explored included parental care, baby loss, breastfeeding and identity.
Penning Parenthood with Dr Paige Davis, senior lecturer in Psychology, a QR funded project exploring the benefits of creative writing for expressing the experience of early parenthood. The project involved writing workshops and an edited collection of prose and poetry Blood & Cord published by The Emma Press (2023).
The multi-disciplinary research project 'The Pollination Project' bringing together artists, designers and writers to re-wild part of the York St John campus and create an online archive and published anthology. (QR and externally funded). https://yorkstjohnpollinationproject.com/
I wrote the words for the following musical projects composed by Dr David Lancaster and recorded with a professional choir:
'At the edge of the world' and exploration of the experience of an anchoress in a medieval church, All Saints North Street, in York and ‘The Pickering Frescoes: Music of a Thousand Breaths’ a collaboration with composer David Lancaster: song, instrumental music and dance inspired by medieval wall paintings at Pickering Church. Performed in the church by Ensemble 1450 surrounded by the frescoes, July 2018. Words by Abi Curtis, Music by David Lancaster. (both QR funded)
