“(Poulsons) work has a crystalline quality that is unusual” (OSIRIS. U.S.A.)

“What May Sarton calls ‘the burden of mystery’ requires we speak of that of which we cannot speak. This is no less than a vocation, and Joan Poulson’s work is under that burden of necessity… is rare and worth our attention”

(David Hart)

Joan Poulson is a poet, dramatist, children’s writer and tutor born in Manchester. Her work is represented in 300+ anthologies, her books held in 665 libraries world-wide.

Publications:

earth-being, Below-the Moor Press 1992

Celebration (chn’s), UNICEF 1993

Girls are like Diamonds (chn’s), O.U.P. 1995

Pictures in my Mind (chn’s), Macdonald 1999

earth-being, Flarestack reprint 2000

Dear Ms (chn’s), A & C Black 2001

onetree singing, Blackthorn Books 2001

Sling a Jammy Doughnut (ed. chn’s), Hodder 2002

onetree journal, Flarestack 2010

Non-fiction:

Window on Winwick Hospital, Arts/N.W. Arts 1994

Ladywell Lives Hospital, Arts/N.W. Arts 1996

During the 1980s  Joan had 14 books published on the subject of regional English food & its links with tradition, trained as a ceramicist, worked as scriptwriter for a B.B.C. radio soap, has held several long-term residencies: with a sculptor, modern dance company, musicians, painters & for almost 4 years in hospitals, working with adults with severe mental health issues.

She has read & exhibited her work nationally & internationally: New Mexico; Durham Art Gallery; Oslo; India; California; The South Bank Centre, London; Vermont Studio Center during a two-month scholarship stay (Vermont Fellowship); the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh; the Jeffrye Museum, London; has received bursaries from the Arts Council; twice received the Canadian Sandberg-Livesay Award & received awards from the U.S. National Federation of State Poetry Societies.

Her children’s collection Pictures in my Mind (Macdonald) was shortlisted for the Signal Award.

In 2012 her work for children will be represented on The Poetry Archive.