Professor of Creative Writing, Co-ordinator of MA & MFA in Creative Writing, Research Lead for the School of Humanities, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
I currently teach on: Master of Fine Arts, MA Courses, PhD Supervision.
I am also involved with: Postgraduate Creative Writing workshop
tell us about yourself!
Where did you study? I studied at the universities of Sussex and Exeter. I have a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing, an MA in Creative Writing/English Studies, and a BA in Creative Writing, Culture and Community.
What is the primary genre you write in? I write in all genres and have two poetry collections and a novel published, as well as short stories and critical essays. I’m currently completing my second novel. I’m interested in the science of time and space, climate change, animals, the post-human, the maternal body, ekphrasis and elegy. I also love to collaborate and have done so with artists, musicians and conservationists.
What are your reading passions? I have lots of reading passions – science from Carlo Rovelli, short fiction from Sarah Hall, Raymond Carver, George Saunders and Alice Munro, novels by Michel Faber, and Maggie O’Farrell, poetry by Emily Dickinson, Alice Oswald , Sharon Olds and Robin Robertson.
Which writers have influenced you the most? My influences are eclectic, as above. I also highly recommend reading Shakespeare and Ovid– always fascinating.
What has been your reading experience over lockdown? I was also on maternity leave with my second baby, so not as much reading as I would like. My favourite reads might have been Mother: A Memoir by Nicholas Royle, and Blue Ticket, by Sophie Mackintosh.
What is so appealing about working at YSJ? Its sense of community, beautiful gardens and stunning location in the city.
Who did you read as a child? My favourite books were The Impossible Day and The Impossible Night, by Marina Warner (also a literary academic I later learned). I love reading Julia Donaldson and Dr Suess to my two sons, aged 5 and 1.
If you had unlimited publishing power/money what would you do? My first novel, Water & Glass is a post-apocalyptic, post-flood narrative and I’d love to make a film of it – it would be pretty high budget.
What have you had published?
- I have two poetry collections with Salt publishing, The Glass Delusion (2013) and Unexpected Weather (2012). My first novel, Water & Glass was published by Cloud Lodge Books in 2017.
- I wrote and performed a radio essay on “The Eye” for BBC Radio 3 and the Wellcome Trust in 2018.
- My most recent essay was for the Oxford Literary Review, 2020, a special edition on the 100th anniversary of Freud’s essay ‘The Uncanny’ and it explores crocodiles and the notion of speculative elegy.
- I have been the recipient of a Somerset Maugham Award, an Eric Greogory Award, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize and a Crashaw Prize.
- I lead a multi-disciplinary multi-arts project called The Pollination Project in 2017.
- For details on all of these, please see abicurtis.com
You can find more about Dr Abi Curtis and other members of York St John’s staff on the university’s website.
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