A poet with a deep curiosity around the idea of Place. This extends to our connection with landscape and nature—what, if anything, qualifies a person as ‘connected’ and are these the people we should be looking to in times of ecological crisis?
My first collection The Arctic Diaries was published by Arachne Press in 2023 and is an attempt to preserve the oral traditions of a single fishing community in northern Norway. A project which brought my academic background in history into my creative practice for the first time. The Arctic Diaries forms the springboard for a second collection, which will explore the poetics of immersion within the landscape and life of a single character from the archipelago of Fleinvær.
Often I create work for display, rather than publication, and my poetry has been exhibited or performed around Cumbria, Yorkshire, London, Portugal & Norway.
Alongside an experimental practice, I collaborate on or develop creative projects which aim to make poetry accessible as a tool for environmental and place-based conversations. Through communal and collage poetry, workshops, cross-discipline exhibitions and more, I hope to bring new voices into the creative arena. This includes work with the National Trust, Cumbria & Craven County Councils, poetry festivals, galleries, arts centres and schools. Please see ‘Projects’ page for examples of previous work.
Based in the Lake District and Arctic Norway, where I co-manage The Arctic Hideaway, a retreat for creative processes.
‘Is writing about wind a way of controlling it
holding elements in human hands to mould a gale like ink with my fingers
that’s why I’m here’
From ‘Between the Trees’
Melissa Davies 