Emily Hinshelwood's new poetry collection, 'On Becoming a Fish' was inspired by a series of walks around the 186 mile Pembrokeshire coastal path in West Wales, known for its spectacular views from cliffside paths skirting the Irish sea and the Bristol Channel. Deeply engaged with environmental issues through her work in community energy and climate change, the author is also a keen observer of human nature in the context of this beautiful coastline. The poems feature: ghosts, quarries, shipwrecks, pirates, fishermen, sailors; the remnants of industrial industry as well as monuments from the past: neolithic burial sites, forts, caves, graves, memorials. Also present are characters conjured from history such as the 'four hundred Welsh Women wearing stovepipe hats' who foiled the last invasion of Britain at Carregwastad in 1797, as well as contemporary encounters: a retired fisherman, lifeboat crew, a lighthouse keeper and a skinny dipper.
The author says: "This collection explores 'what happens at the boundary' - not just the topographical boundary of sea meeting land - but the concept of boundary in itself: political borders, social barriers, environmental limits, historical divisions; the boundary between fact and fiction, between you and I."
Emily Hinshelwood's new poetry collection, 'On Becoming a Fish' was inspired by a series of walks around the 186 mile Pembrokeshire coastal path in West Wales, known for its spectacular views from cliffside paths skirting the Irish sea and the Bristol Channel. Deeply engaged with environmental issues through her work in community energy and climate change, the author is also a keen observer of human nature in the context of this beautiful coastline. The poems feature: ghosts, quarries, shipwrecks, pirates, fishermen, sailors; the remnants of industrial industry as well as monuments from the past: neolithic burial sites, forts, caves, graves, memorials. Also present are characters conjured from history such as the 'four hundred Welsh Women wearing stovepipe hats' who foiled the last invasion of Britain at Carregwastad in 1797, as well as contemporary encounters: a retired fisherman, lifeboat crew, a lighthouse keeper and a skinny dipper.
The author says: "This collection explores 'what happens at the boundary' - not just the topographical boundary of sea meeting land - but the concept of boundary in itself: political borders, social barriers, environmental limits, historical divisions; the boundary between fact and fiction, between you and I."
A writer, performer and community arts facilitator in south Wales, Emily Hinshelwood's poetry has been published in many literary magazines including Poetry Wales, Ambit, Aesthetica, and New Welsh Review. She has won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, and was shortlisted for the Bridport prize and the Forward Prize for the best individual poem in 2010. After an early career as an anthropologist in the field of sustainable development for Oxfam, Actionaid, and various UN agencies, she moved to Wales in 1997 and worked as a lecturer at Swansea University before choosing to concentrate on writing and environmental work. She has two daughters and runs a smallholding with her partner in south Wales.
Her poetry has been published in many literary magazines including Ambit, Poetry Wales, Acumen, The Rialto. She has won a number of awards including the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, Envoi poetry competition, Aesthetica Creative works (highly commended), shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and nominated in 2010 for the Forward Prize for an individual poem. An early book was awarded the David St John Thomas Award for the best self-published poetry collection of 2004. Much of her writing is inspired by the natural world. She is a firm believer that the arts have a major role to play in how we will negotiate our lives in this changing planet.
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