Lucy English
- Reader - Creative Writing
- Email: l.english@bathspa.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)1225 875875
- School or Department: School of Creative Industries
- Office: NP.CM.214
- Website:

Personal statement
Lucy English is a Reader in Creative Writing. She teaches on the undergraduate and Master's Creative Writing courses. Her specialisms are performance/spoken word poetry, public speaking and writing for digital platforms.
She is one of the organisers of MIX, the Bath Spa conferences in digital writing.
She is co-creator of the poetry film organisation Liberated Words, which curates and screens poetry films.
She is currently studying for a PhD in Digital Writing, creating a digital poetry film project, The Book of Hours.
She has three novels published by Fourth Estate: Selfish People (1998), Children of Light (1999); and Our Dancing Days (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, Prayer to Imperfection, was published by Burning Eye books in March 2014. Her second collection is due in 2018.
She co-ordinated the International Conference in the writing and practice of performance poetry at Bath Spa University and since then has run the first performance poetry module at a UK university.
In 2006 she was artistic director of Apples and Snakes Poetry Tour, Exposed. 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 Count Me In. 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 Arvon. As an RLF consultant fellow, Lucy runs training workshops in UK universities.
Academic qualifications
- Currently enrolled: PhD Digital Writing
- BA English and American Literature and Fine Arts, University of East Anglia
- MA Creative Writing, Bath Spa University.
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 am interested in supervising students in:
- Spoken word
- Performance poetry
- Film poems
- Hybrid poetry
- Digital poetry
- Multi-media projects.
Research and academic outputs
The book of hours
book
English, L (2018) The book of hours. Burning Eye Books, Portishead. ISBN 9781911570370
Prayer to imperfection
book
English, L (2014) Prayer to imperfection. Burning Eye Books, Portishead. ISBN 9781909136274
The city
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, p. 113. ISBN 9781892494535
Let me be
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
And the word was made flesh
article
English, L (2017) 'And the word was made flesh.' Mslexia (74). pp. 36-37. ISSN 1473-9399
Using students in 'Real Time' projects
article
English, L (2015) 'Using students in 'Real Time' projects.' Writing in Education, 65. pp. 36-38. ISSN 1361-8539
Brave new worlds: spoken word and open mic sessions
article
English, L (2013) 'Brave new worlds: spoken word and open mic sessions.' Mslexia (60). ISSN 1473-9399
Project and event work for undergraduate creative writing student development
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.
Teach a writer to fish
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.
All the journeys I never took
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]..
Count me in: the stories behind the numbers in our lives
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.
'Exposed' Poetry tour
performance
English, L (2006) 'Exposed' Poetry tour. Poetry performances at 20 venues across the UK including Birmingham rep and Contact Theatre, Manchester..
Buzz Festival
performance
English, L (2006) Buzz Festival. British Council tour of Sri Lanka and India: poetry performances.
'Temptation' Poetry Tour
performance
English, L (2005) 'Temptation' Poetry Tour. Poetry performances at 18 venues across the UK including Cheltenham Festival of Literature, Poetry Café, London and Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham..
Writing poetry for poetry films: an exploration of the use of spoken word poetry in poetry films
other
English, L (2018) Writing poetry for poetry films: an exploration of the use of spoken word poetry in poetry films. Poetry Film Live, Feb.
The Book of Hours (2018) [multi-component output with contextualising information]
other
English, L (2018) The Book of Hours (2018) [multi-component output with contextualising information].
The book of hours: creating a collaboration poetry film project
other
English, L (2017) The book of hours: creating a collaboration poetry film project. Sabotage Reviews.