Personal statement

Dr Lucy English is a Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word. She teaches on the undergraduate and Master's Creative Writing courses. Her specialisms are performance/spoken word poetry, live literature and writing for digital platforms. She is currently the co-director the Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival.

She is one of the organisers of , the Bath Spa conferences in digital writing.

She is co-creator of the poetry film organisation , which curates and screens poetry films.

She has a PhD in Digital Writing, where she created the digital poetry film project, .

She has three novels published by Fourth Estate:  (1998),  (1999); and  (2000).

She is best known as a performance poet, first winning the Bristol Poetry Slam in 1996, then going on to tour worldwide, performing her poetry at many international festivals. Her first poetry collection, , was published by Burning Eye books in March 2014. Her second collection, also published by Burning Eye Books, The Book of Hours (2018),  contains the poetry from her digital poetry film project. was shortlisted for the New Media Writing Prize in 2019. 

She coordinated the International Conference in the writing and practice of performance poetry at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ and since then has run the first performance poetry module at a UK university.

In 2006 she was artistic director of . In 2007, she was a finalist in the first BBC Radio 4 Poetry Slam. In 2010-11 she toured the UK with the acclaimed Arts Council sponsored multi-media poetry show, Flash, and in 2014-2015 toured with . She continues to perform and produce spoken word poetry.

She has toured Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Taiwan with the British Council, running workshops and performances. She has also run workshops for . As an , Lucy runs training workshops in UK universities.

Lucy has been the co-director of Bristol's since 2019.

Academic qualifications

  • Currently enrolled: PhD Digital Writing
  • BA English and American Literature and Fine Arts, University of East Anglia
  • MA Creative Writing, ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿.

Professional memberships

  • Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow.

Other external roles

  • External examiner for Kingston University.

 

  • Spoken word
  • Performance poetry
  • Public speaking
  • Creative writing
  • Multi-media writing
  • Writing for digital platforms.

Impact

  • I wrote a poem live on air for AutumnWatch Unsprung 2010
  • I continue to work as a professional spoken word poet/producer, and in 2017 I produced the immersive spoken word show ‘All the Journeys I Never Took’.

I'm interested in supervising students in:

  • Spoken word
  • Performance poetry
  • Film poems
  • Hybrid poetry
  • Digital poetry
  • Multi-media projects.

Research outputs

book

English, L (2026) Dream time. Burning Eye Books, Bristol. ISBN 9781913958749 (Forthcoming)


book

English, L, Amanulla, N, Martins, C, McLaughlin, C and Giesswein, M, eds. (2026) Recharging Europe: reflections for the future. A European Forum Alpbach book. Anthology of scholarship holders’ reflections of 2025. 2nd ed. European Forum Alpbach, Wienersdorf, Austria. ISBN 9798271355165


book

English, L and McGowan, J, eds. (2021) Spoken word in the UK. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9780367352530


book

English, L (2018) The book of hours. Burning Eye Books, Portishead. ISBN 9781911570370


book

English, L (2014) Prayer to imperfection. Burning Eye Books, Portishead. ISBN 9781909136274


book

English, L (2009) Why I'm here. Typical Mundy, Bristol. ISBN 9780956315106


book

English, L (2001) Our dancing days. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 9781841152424


book

English, L (1999) Children of light. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 9781857029765


book

English, L (1998) Selfish people. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 9781857027631


book_section

English, L (2023) 'Finding a new approach: the use of visual images in spoken word poetry film.' In: Korecka, M.E and Vorrath, W, eds. Poetry and contemporary visual culture / Lyrik und zeitgenössische Visuelle Kultur. Poetry in the digital age (3). De Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 207-222. ISBN 9783111286396


book_section

English, L (2021) 'The Book of Hours: a collaborative online poetry film project between a spoken word poet and poetry film-makers.' In: Tremlett, S, ed. The poetics of poetry film: film poetry, videopoetry, lyric voice, reflection. Intellect, Bristol, pp. 210-213. ISBN 9781789382686


book_section

Birnie, C and English, L (2021) 'Spoken word in print: instant coffee - a conversation with Clive Birnie from Burning Eye Books.' In: English, L and McGowan, J, eds. Spoken word in the UK. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 449-455. ISBN 9780367352530


book_section

English, L (2021) 'The democracy of poetry: the Bristol spoken word scene.' In: English, L and McGowan, J, eds. Spoken word in the UK. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 88-105. ISBN 9780367352530


book_section

English, L and McGowan, J (2021) 'Setting the stage: an introduction to spoken word in the UK.' In: English, L and McGowan, J, eds. Spoken word in the UK. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 1-14. ISBN 9780367352530


book_section

English, L (2002) 'The city.' In: Swift, T and Norton, P, eds. Short fuse: the global anthology of new fusion poetry. Rattapallax Press, New York, pp. 113-115. ISBN 9781892494535


book_section

English, L (2002) 'Let me be.' In: Swift, T and Norton, P, eds. Short fuse: the global anthology of new fusion poetry. Rattapallax Press, New York. ISBN 9781892494535


article

English, L (2020) 'Writing poetry for poetry films: an exploration of the use of spoken word poetry in poetry films.' Poetryfilm Magazin, 5. pp. 58-66.


article

English, L (2020) 'Creative infection: how haikus went viral.' Mslexia (87). pp. 72-73. ISSN 1473-9399


article

English, L (2017) 'And the word was made flesh.' Mslexia (74). pp. 36-37. ISSN 1473-9399


article

English, L (2015) 'Using students in 'real time' projects.' Writing in Education, 65. pp. 36-38. ISSN 1361-8539


article

English, L (2013) 'Brave new worlds: spoken word and open mic sessions.' Mslexia (60). ISSN 1473-9399


conference_item

Thebo, M, Vanderslice, S, McNair, P.A, English, L and Etter, C (2012) Project and event work for undergraduate creative writing student development. In: AWP Conference and Bookfair, 29 February - 3 March 2012, Chicago, IL, USA.


conference_item

Thebo, M, May, S, Albers, R, McNair, P and English, L (2009) Teach a writer to fish. In: Creative Writing In Education : NAWE Autumn Conference, 13 - 15 November 2009, Chilworth Manor, Southampton, UK.


thesis

English, L (2021) 'The book of hours'; a new poetics: finding a model for spoken word in poetry films. PhD thesis, ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿.


artefact

English, L (2021) The Book of Hours (2018) [REF2021 collection].


exhibition

English, L, Falkenberg, P and Cochran, J (2023) Cancer Alley (2022) & I want to breath sweet air (2020). In: Art Speaks Out on COP 28, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 30 November - 12 December 2023.


exhibition

English, L, Falkenberg, P and Cochran, J (2023) Cancer Alley (2022). In: Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival, Bristol, UK, 22 April - 1 May 2023.


performance

Tantony, R, Meseguer, R, Fredericks, S and English, L (2016) All the journeys I never took. The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, UK, 1 - 2 October 2016 [and 9 other venues as a touring production].


performance

Arbury, S, Carmichael, G and English, L (2014) Count me in: the stories behind the numbers in our lives. St Ives Arts Club, St Ives [and 17 other venues as a touring production], 7 March 2014 - 26 March 2015.


performance

English, L (2010) Flash. Touring show, 2010.


performance

English, L (2006) Poetry performance. In: WordFest, Banff and Calgary, Canada, 15 October 2006.


performance

English, L (2006) Exposed. Touring show, August - November 2006.


performance

English, L (2006) Poetry performance. In: Buzz Festival, Sri Lanka and India, February - March 2006.


performance

English, L (2005) Temptation. Touring show, September - October 2005.


video

English, L, Falkenberg, P and Cochran, J (2020) I Want to Breathe Sweet Air.


video

English, L (2011) Passing On.


other

English, L (2018) Writing poetry for poetry films: an exploration of the use of spoken word poetry in poetry films [blog post]. Poetry Film Live, Feb.


other

English, L (2017) The book of hours: creating a collaboration poetry film project [blog post]. Sabotage Reviews.


other

English, L (2017) The book of hours [website].


other

English, L (2010) Unsprung [poem].