Words in company

(Photo © Liz Mathews)

I’m a freelance writer of fiction, creative non-fiction and plays, based in London.

Publications/ Productions include:

Biography: Valentine Ackland: A Transgressive Life, published by Handheld Press in 2021:

Shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2022 and won Authors’ Foundation Award 2020

A remarkable book about a remarkable woman.

Gill Davies, Shiny New Books

Launched at GTW and featured in the TLS podcast and Bristol Ideas Festival, British Library etc

Reviewed as ‘richly detailed, meticulously researched’, ‘a remarkable book… a very well-written, measured and sensitive evaluation’, ‘impeccably researched, vividly detailed…an indelible achievement’ in publications from the Observer to the Daily Mail! (attributions here)

Poetry:

London Panopticon (The Pottery Press 2020)

a city incantation described by Mimi Khalvati as:

…more than a pamphlet. As sparkling and all-encompassing as the city itself, it is a vision, a love song, a pilgrimage, a perfect union of image and word. And it takes one’s breath away!

Mimi Khalvati

Fiction:

The Principle of Camouflage  (Two Ravens Press, 2011) was described by Maureen Duffy as: ‘A true work of the imagination, transporting Prospero’s island, and us, to wartime Britain on a shining wave of sea images.’ Elizabeth Baines (Fictionbitch), writing in The Guardian, called it: ‘enticingly strange…Poetic…Very literary… beautifully written. I loved it.’  She shortlisted it as a ‘missing contender’ for the Guardian First Book Award, and it was selected for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

(Cover image, Sealight by Liz Mathews)

Plays:

Comrade Ackland and I was broadcast as BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama on 27 May 2019, and selected as the Sunday Times Radio Pick of the Week. (Full cast list and credits here.)

The Blue Hour of Natalie Barney was first produced at Arcola Theatre in London 7-11 November 2017, starring Amanda Boxer and directed by Kenneth Hoyt – video about the production here:

(photo © Liz Mathews)

The playtext is published by The Pottery Press:

Presentations, talks, events:

I’ve read my work at numerous literary festivals and other venues (from academic conferences to gay literary salons), including the Southbank Centre’s Literature and Spoken Word programme, the Edinburgh International Book Festival (2011), the V&A’s Friday Late (2015). I’ve also read poetry live on Woman’s Hour, contributed to the BBC Radio 4 series From the Ban to the Booker, been a panellist for discussions at the British Library, National Poetry Library, Westminster Libraries, Dorset History Centre and Dorchester County Museum, and given online talks for the TUC (Tolpuddle Radical History School) and Socialist History Society et al.

I also give Journal-writing workshops, including a weekend masterclass at the British Library and shorter informal workshops – London Journal – which I post on my Journal-writing page when booking is open.

I’m the daughter of the Scots historian and biographer Caroline Bingham.  I work with my partner Liz Mathews, the studio potter and lettering artist, on text-based projects; she created the artist’s book images for my long poem MOTHERTONGUE (Pottery Press 1999), also the cover images for Journey from Winter and The Principle of Camouflage. She’s set my words in numerous artist’s books and paperworks, for example in her installation at the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre and other recent exhibitions, and in the artist’s film Riversoup.  We work together as Potters’ Yard Arts.

More non-fiction: as  biographical introduction-writer and editor, I’ve also published Journey from Winter (Carcanet, 2008) – my edition and selection of Valentine Ackland’s poetry, with critical biography.   In the TLS Ali Smith described me as ‘Ackland’s critical guardian angel’ and praised my ‘impassioned reading’;  The Guardian commissioned me to write Ackland’s centenary feature, and I contributed a chapter on her to Critical Essays on Sylvia Townsend Warner (Edwin Mellen Press, 2006).  My professional involvement with Ackland’s work/life continues, with regular talks and readings, and the publication of the definitive biography in 2021.

(Cover image: Spacewater by Liz Mathews)

Short stories and poems: I’ve also published in anthologies and magazines, including Double Tongue (Diva Book of Short Stories, 2000 – LAMBDA best anthology award), The Recognition Scene (Long Journey Home, The Women’s Press, 2001), and Call Me By My Name (Necrologue, Diva Books, 2003 – my story was selected by Time Out’s reviewer as: ‘well-written and imaginative, particularly haunting…).

My poem about Amy Johnson, Sicilian Avenue, was awarded a prize by Michael Donaghy at the York Poetry festival back in 1996, and I’ve published a long poem, MOTHERTONGUE, as a limited edition artists’ book, with images by Liz Mathews  (Pottery Press 1999) and also published poetry in magazines, like Translating Sappho in issue 7 of Chroma (2008).

===============================================================================================