Brilliant news that Out of Time has been selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Autumn 2021. A huge congratulations to Valley Press and the brilliant editor Kate Simpson.

You can pre-order Out of Time here: https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/162/out_of_time__poetry_from_the_climate_emergency

On August 5/6th, I’ll be running a 2-day symposium with my colleagues Dr Katherine Collins (Oxford) and Dr Helen Mort (MMU). This two-day symposium seeks to bring together poets, researchers, researcher-poets and poet-researchers interested in exploring the intersections of poetry and research and to explore the questions we, as members of this growing field of inquiry, should be asking of our practices, our ethics, our outputs, and ourselves. 

Our questions include:

• How do we define the core terms: what is research, what is poetry, what is collaboration, art, creativity, method?
• How do we articulate aesthetic, epistemic, and ethical criteria for this kind of work? Should standards exist and what should they be?
• What is the impact of Impact and other research quality frameworks such as REF on the kind of work that is made and valued?
• What makes an effective, productive, collaboration between individuals and disciplines when some are poetically inclined, and others are research inclined?
• Is poetry a ‘non-extractive’ method of research? How are the risks of colonising and appropriating poetic traditions being articulated and managed?

To send in a paper head here: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/article/it-shame-or-it-water-poetry-and-research-conversation

To register as an attendee head here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-it-shame-or-is-it-water-poetry-and-research-in-conversation-tickets-157261524453

Can technology let us dialogue with plants? What happens when a poem is playable? How does Zoom impact on our idea of what a poetry reading is?

Join me on June 23rd when Jade Cuttle, Lenni Sanders, Kim Moore and J.R. Carpenter will be answering these questions and more!

The event is hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL at part of my Fellowship in Creative Practice. It’s open to all and registration is via: https://bit.ly/3gzA4IU

On Thursday 3rd June join me, students from UCL and a selection of writers and academics for a roundtable discussion on what poetry-based approaches can bring to academic research.

We’ll be joined by:

Dr Eric Langley (UCL) who will be talking about the relationship between their book of poems Raking Light (Carcanet) and their research in English Literature

Dr Hannah Walters (UCL) who will be talking about using creative methods in her research into the experiences of working-class and first-in-family women students at UCL

Dr Hannah Copley (Westminster) who will be discussing the relationship between writing poetry and their academic practice

Dr Thomas Karshan (UEA) who will be talking about Nabakov and issues of understanding, knowledge and research

The event is free and open to all. Register here: https://ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJckduGhqD0pGt0YlithrinM5XMuNI3qDZBd

On Friday 7th May I will be chairing an event at Homerton College on poetry and climate change.

Meeting the challenges of the climate crisis requires a radical reorganisation of the ways we live, work and play. In this roundtable discussion, artists, publishers, academics and climate activists will explore how creativity, particularly poetry, might help us to create bold new ways of thinking, being and doing.

The panel will feature the poets Jade Cuttle, Ella Duffy and Mariah Whelan, the editor Kate Simpson, academics and students from Homerton College, Cambridge as well as activists who are all invited to reflect on how poetry can help us rise to the challenges we are already facing and will continue to face over the coming decades.

Can art make a difference? How can we use creativity to mobilise emotion and affect real systematic change? Are there places where poetry falls short? Over an hour and a half, we will hear from our panel of experts before opening up for group discussion. 

Details: https://fb.me/e/ZXORz13f

For almost 800 years the sonnet has been a mainstay of English-language poetry. In a 6-week course for Literature Cambridge, I’ll be guiding students as we trace the form’s development from its earliest incarnations in English to contemporary examples of this flexible and diverse poetic form.

For details and to book head over to: https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/sonnet

I have a new article up on the Poetry by Heart website about how poetry might be one strategy we can use for post-pandemic recovery in our schools.

Head over to https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/blog/the-pandemic-poetry-and-healing/ to read more.

This March I will be joining the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London as a Fellow in Creative Practice.

The purpose of the fellowship is to use creative methodologies to intervene in our ideas about knowledge production in academic contexts. I’ll be carrying out interdisciplinary research and teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students about using poetry-writing methods in their academic practice.

You can read more about my research project here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/creative-fellowship-programme-202021-art-practice-predicated-unknowable and read my academic bio here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/dr-mariah-whelan

On Thursday 25th of February I’ll be headlining an open mic hosted by Writers in Oxford. Head over to https://www.writersinoxford.org/ for details of how to join.

Last term, during Homerton’s Wellbeing and Mental Health Week, I wrote a new poem that thinks about pain and openness. You can hear me reading it over on the UoC Facebook page:

https://fb.watch/3t3Y-v_1YA/