About

I was born in Wales in 1973. I grew up in Swansea – caught between the sea and tall grasses of the Gower to my right and heavy industry to my left. (Location is everything.)

I received an Eric Gregory in 2001, and in the same year I was shortlisted for the Poetry Society’s Dearmer Prize and included in Anvil New Poets 3. In 2004, Seren published my debut collection, The Never-Never, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the T. S. Eliot Prize. My poems, articles and reviews have appeared widely, in places such as the TLS, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review and the Independent, as well as anthologies such as Women’s Work and Poetry 1900-2000. I’ve been a contributor to several programmes on the arts for the BBC – including The Larkin Tapes, A Poet’s Guide to Britain and Great Welsh Writers: Gillian Clarke – and some of my poems on rugby were made into short films for BBC Wales, voiced by Eve Myles and Matthew Rhys and airing during prime time, alongside other films featuring work by Gillian Clarke, Owen Sheers and Paul Henry. Several years ago, I completed an artists’ book with Mary Modeen, Uncertain Territories. My most recent work is a pamphlet, Flowers, published by the wonderful Rack Press. You can buy it here: http://rackpress.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/new-titles-for-2017-available-to-buy-now.html

From 2008-2011, I edited Wales’s leading literary journal, New Welsh Review. I was the editor of Parthian Books from 2011-2012. I have taught for both the Arvon Foundation and the Poetry School. I am Deputy Chair of Trustees of The Poetry Society.

From 2012–2015, I was also a researcher for an exciting new project called Devolved Voices, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust. My colleagues were team leader Professor Peter Barry and fellow researcher Dr Matthew Jarvis. Over three years, we investigated Welsh poetry in English post-devolution (1997). The project had several key outputs of interest to scholars, practising poets and lay readers, including a large video collection of interviews with Welsh and Wales-associated poets, and can be found at  https://www.aber.ac.uk/devolvedvoices/

Alongside poetry, I am passionate about literary fiction, film, theatre, popular culture, curiosities and all manner of exquisite minutiae.