I am a poet, editor and academic. I have published poetry, essays, and reviews widely, and have written for the stage. I am the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an Author’s Foundation Grant from the Society of Authors.
My first collection of poetry, The Resurrectionists (Bloodaxe Books, 2021), was a poetry book of the month in The Guardian and highly commended in the 2021 Forward Prizes for Poetry. I have published two pamphlets: The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017), a 2019 New Writing North Read Regional Title, and Hallsong (New Writing North, 2022), written while I was writer in residence at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall in 2021/22. My second collection, The Green Parcel, is forthcoming from Bloodaxe Books in 2026.
I hold a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, where I previously worked as a Research Associate, Teaching Fellow and Associate Lecturer, and contributed to the management of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts and the Newcastle Poetry Festival. My PhD was a creative and critical exploration of film noir and the 'poem noir'.
I currently teach on the following modules:
- Being a Writer
- Forms of Narrative
- Critical Approaches to Creative Writing (MA)
- Writing in the World (MA)
- Writing Poetry
- The Writer's Workshop
My research interests include contemporary British, Irish and American poetry; poetry archives; the civic poem; poetry as public art; poetry that concerns industry, work, employment, jobs and class; and poetry about film noir and cinema.
Recent publications
I am an editor for Poetry Salzburg Review, an External Examiner for the BA in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University, and sit on the board of Bloodaxe Books.
