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Dr Eleanor Rees

SENIOR LECTURER IN CREATIVE WRITING
English
0151 291 3536
reese@hope.ac.uk

Biography:

I am an award-winning and internationally-recognised poet born in Birkenhead, Merseyside. I have published five collections of poetry, many poetry pamphlets, collaborations, commissions and lyric essays on poetics. My poetry has has been reviewed widely in leading literary magazines. I am passionate about the value of poetry and imagination to the wider community and the individual. I am active as a poet in the community across Merseyside and beyond. My poems draw on myth, magic, folklore and explore the human relationship with the city, edgelands, post-industrial landscapes and the natural world. Tam Lin of the Winter Park (Guillemot, 2022) is my fifth poetry collection, following The Well at Winter Solstice (Salt, 2019), Blood Child (Pavilion, 2015), Eliza and the Bear (Salt,2009), and Andraste’s Hair (Salt, 2007), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. My first pamphlet Feeding Fire (Spout, 2001) received an Eric Gregory Award from Society of Authors in 2002. Selections of my poems are translated into French, Spanish, German, Lithuanian, Slovak and Romanian. (Versopolis, 2016, 2019, 2024). New Spanish translations were published in Latin America autumn 2023. I am regularly invited to read my poetry at literary festivals in the UK and internationally. My poems have inspired artists, musicians, and composers, most recently a new composition for the Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10:10, 2023. I have also worked extensively as a poet in the community with The Windows Project, Liverpool and have twenty years’ experience teaching creative writing in higher education. I have read my poems and been interviewed for Front Row Radio 4, Radio 3 The Verb, Radio Merseyside and widely online. The indie band Eliza and the Bear are named after my second book. I am the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award, an Irish Glen Dimplex New Writers’ Award and a Northern Writers’ Award. Please see eleanorrees.info for further details on my work.


Teaching Specialism:

Contemporary Poetry and Poetics

Creative Process and Writing Workshops

Community Writing and Practice of the Local Poet

Lyric Essay and Creative Criticism

Philosophy of Poetry and the Environment


I have a PGCERT in Higher Education. Over twenty years I have taught creative writing (poetry, prose and theory) at Manchester Metropolitan University, Edge Hill University, Liverpool Centre for Continuing Education, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Glasgow.  I am always interested in discussing research supervision, mentorship or poetic development. I am supervising the VC Doctoral Studentship project for poet and musician Andrew Hykel-Mears, 'Writing Poetry with the More-Than-Human'.  Andrew is the editor of Ambient Receiver: Journal of Creative Ecologies.

My AHRC funded PhD (Exeter, 2014) is entitled 'Making Connections: The Work of the Local Poet'. I have worked at Liverpool Hope since 2016 leading on the development of the course in creative writing.


School/Faculty Roles:

I also have several administrative roles in creative writing and the English Subject area.  Level C Coordinator, Recruitment lead for English subject area, Research Project Coordinator, Student Voice Committee. I am a co-coordinator of the Limina interdisciplinary Research Group and member of the School of Humanities Environmental Humanities research group. 


Impact and Community Engagement:

I lead the Liverpool Hope Poetry Workshop and coordinate The Matt Simpson Memorial Poetry Reading. I also wrote an English Impact Case Study 2021 based on my extensive work in the community as a poet. 

I am an advisory board member of The Windows Project, Liverpool and partner member of Liverpool Poetry Space and Liverpool Reads and a committee member for  Wirral Poetry Festival. I have worked as a poet in the community in Merseyside and beyond since 2001.


Recent publications:

Rees, Eleanor, 'Five Breaths', (May 2024) Kings College London: Wild Court

Rees, Eleanor, ‘The Hill’, (June 2023) Dublin: Poetry Ireland Review 140

Rees, Eleanor, (2022), Tam Lin of the Winter Park, Cornwall: Guillemot Press.

Rees, Eleanor, ‘Portent in the High Woods’, ‘Escape at Red Rocks’ and ‘Divination at High Water, (April 2022) London: The White Review

Rees, Eleanor, ‘Woods in Late Summer’, ‘Wind-thrown’ (March 2022), Glasgow: Gutter Magazine.

Rees, Eleanor, (2022), ‘Review of Jones, Fayyaz, Duhig’, Poetry Wales, Bridgend. Seren.

Rees, Eleanor, (2021), ‘Journeying Through’: Poetry as a Way of Knowing, Ndlovu, D.S. (ed), Moving Words, Poetry In/As Research, York: York Tree Publications.

Rees, Eleanor, ‘By the Walled Garden’, ‘Turned Earth’ (Fall, 2021), New York: The Manhattan Review.

Rees, Eleanor, ‘Tam Lin of the Winter Park’, ‘On Coming in from the Cold’ (Winter, 2021) London: The London Magazine

Rees, Eleanor, (2019), The Well at Winter Solstice, Cromer: Salt Publishing.


Public Readings and Performances:

I regularly read poetry at international and local poetry festivals and events. Includes reading at House of Commons and Versopolis EU funded poetry festivals in Slovakia, Lithuania, France, and Austria. Most recently online for University of Lancaster/Obheal Cork and in-person Stanza Poetry Festival, St Andrews. 

Recent readings, presentations and papers: 'Stone to Sand: A Posthuman Lyric 'I', Association for Environment and Literature conference, 2023; 'Poems and Prose in Process': Joint Universities Research Group, 2023; 'Eyes in the Wood' : New Lyric Essay, Limina Research Group, School of Humanities, 2022; The Windows Project Playscheme Summer Children's Poetry Workshops, 2022; Plathfest Poetry Reading and poetry workshop, 2022


A selection of public poetry readings 2015-2023  (I've been giving public poetry readings since 2001)

28th September 2002, Liverpool One Waterstones; 12th October 2022, Bangor University; Friday 21st October 2022, PlathFest, Hebden Bridge and Saturday 22nd October, Poetry Workshop ‘Poetry and Magic’; 28th November 2022 online poetry reading in association with University of Lancaster and Obheal Cork; 23rd September 2022  Online launch of ebook Poetry as/in Research which includes a lyric essay by Eleanor ‘Journeying Through: Poetry as a Way of Knowing’;15th May 2021, Light Night Liverpool Online: 19th February 2021, Bangor University; 20th February 2021, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool 1st March 2021; 7th March 2020 Stanza International Poetry Festival, St Andrews;1st Mar, Salt Poets Reading 2020, Soho Theatre, London ;20th February, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool;19th February, Bangor University;21st December, Poem-songs from The Well at Winter Solstice, Ullet Road Unitarian Church Liverpool with Emily Portman and Mikey Kenney ;Sept 21st, 2019, Williamson Art Gallery. Birkenhead;14th Sept 2019, Poetry Reading, Peter Barlow’s Cigarette, Waterstones, Manchester, UK; Sept 3rd, 2019, Vespers, Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh;21st June 2019, The Well at Winter Solstice Book Launch, St Brides Church, Liverpool.;22-25th May 2019, Le Printemps des Poètes & Versopolis 2019, Paris, France; Poetry Reading at ShadowPlay, Not Just Collective, Light Night Liverpool, Liverpool Central Library; 12th May 2019 Stargazing, A Celebration in Music and Poetry, West Kirby Arts Centre; 12-14th April, ‘Literature and Wine’ International Literary Festival, Austria,1st March, Presence Exhibition Launch, Not Just Collective, Naked Lunch Café 26th Jan 2019, Poetry by the Fireside, St. Brides Poetry Evening, St. Brides Church, Liverpool; 16th Jan, 2019, The Cult of Water/Liverpool Arts Lab, Gibberish Brewpub; 1st Oct, 2019.


PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Fellow of Higher Education Academy, 2016

External Examiner for Creative Writing BA Nottingham Trent University 2023 - 2027

External Examiner for MA Professional Writing University of Falmouth 2023 - 2027

Member Association for Study of Literature and the Environment 2023

Member The Windows Project Advisory Board, 2003 - Present

Member Wirral Poetry Festival Committee 2023 - Present