Dr

Rachel Bentham

Personal statement

Dr Bentham teaches MA courses and co-ordinates undergraduate courses.

Her main responsibilities are looking after staff and students, and her research interests include historical writing, writing about other cultures, and haiku.

She has published and broadcast poetry, short stories and radio drama, especially docudrama, internationally. She has won a US prize for poetry, and is the author of a prizewinning film script.

Clear professional writing is another area of interest, and Rachel works with government depts, NGOs and entrepreneurs helping them to write clearly and effectively.

Academic qualifications

• MA, Bath Spa University
• PhD Creative Writing.

Prizes

• 1999: Sole winner of the ‘Picture This’ prize for film script Learning the Ropes
• 2005: 1st prize in the U.S.A. International Open Poetry Contest.

Publications:

Stories broadcast by BBC Radio 4:

• 1997 - The Body
• 1998 - Poison Garden
• 1998 - When should we live, if not now?
• 2000 - Learning the Ropes
• 2004 – Gymslip
• 2010 – Rip Off.

Docudramas and plays broadcast by BBC Radio 4:

• 1999 - On The Rob
• 2000 - Hanging Around
• 2003 - Dolly Shepherd, the Edwardian Parachute Queen
• 2006 - Cast in Stone.

Edited anthologies:

• Rachel Bentham, ​Alyson Hallett (ed.) Project Boast, Dorset, Triarchy Press, 2018.

Poetry anthologies:

• Alana Farrell (ed.) Rats for Love. Bristol, Bristol Broadsides, 1990
• PVT West, SJ Allen and G Hague (eds.) Rive Gauche. Bristol, Rive Gauche Publishing, 1997
• Sacha Tremain (ed.) Flowers on a Shoestring. Bristol, Institute of Physics Publishing, 2002
• Santosh Kumar (ed.) Symphonies. Allahabad, India, Cyberwit.net,. 2003
• Todd Swift (ed.) 100 Poets Against the War. Cambridge, Salt Publishing, 2003
• David Johnson and Peter Hunter(eds) City. Bristol, Paralalia, 2004
• Andrew Himes (ed) withJan Bultmann, Voices in Wartime ; Anthology. Seattle, Whit Press, 2005
• Pat VT West and Gill Hague What She also Did Was… Bristol, Rive Gauche, 2007
• Monica Jones (ed) Up to Our Necks In It; Poems on the Way We Live Now. Bristol, Black Tulip Books, 2009
• Susan Richardson and Gail Ashton (eds) In The Telling. Blaenau Ffestiniog, Cinnamon Press, 2009.
• Rachel Bentham and Sheila Yeger (eds) It was not and never would be enough and… Bristol, Rive Gauche, 2010.

Stories:

• J Gay and E Hargrave (eds) Her Majesty. Birmingham, Tindal Street Press, 2002
• Rachel Hazlewood (ed), Bristol Tales. York, Endpapers, 2005
• Ginny Bailey and Sally Flint (eds) Riptide – Vol 4. Exeter, Dirt Pie Press, 2009.

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the HEA
• Society of Authors.

Bath Spa employment

• 2001-present.

Subjects

• Writing for Theatre and Radio
• Prose Fiction
• Writing Workshop.

Other external roles

• Consultant, Writing Project.

Areas of expertise

• Historical writing
• Radio drama
• Professional writing.