Jean has twelve years experience of working as a poet and writer with a range of school and community projects. Since March 2020 she's also been running her popular online poetry courses - The Poetry Wire.
Recently she’s been Troubadour of the Hills for Ledbury Poetry Festival, and National Poetry Day’s BBC Poet for Shropshire – for which she wrote a commissioned poem for the county. It turned out that Shropshire has harboured many unexpected elephants.
She is an award-winning and widely published poet. Her second collection 'How Time is in Fields' was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2019. Her first collection, 'Not Lost Since Last Time' was published by Oversteps Books in 2013. She has also published several poetry pamphlets a fantasy novel, 'The Crow House' read by both children and adults. Her third collection 'High Nowhere' is forthcoming in 2023 from Indigo Dreams Publishing.
http://jeanatkin.com
Jean's poetry is often inspired by nature, memory and history. She is interested in the bonds we feel with place, the residues that people leave behind; the traditions that endure and the new rituals we invent.
Jean Atkin’s poetry has appeared in Acumen, Poetry Ireland Review, New Shetlander, New Writing Scotland, Pushing Out The Boat, Northwords Now and others. Read On Milking Stile Lane, published on Ink, Sweat and Tears here. Her first collection Not Lost Since Last Time was published by Oversteps Books in 2013 and launched at StAnza International Poetry Festival.
In 2008, Jean Atkin won the Dartington Hall Ways With Words Poetry Competition, in 2009 won both the Torbay Open Poetry Prize and the Ravenglass Poetry Press Competition, and in 2010 was a winner in both the Mirehouse Poetry Competition and the Elmet Poetry Prize. In 2011 her pamphlet from Roncadora Press, ‘Lost at Sea’ was shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Memorial Prize. She was shortlisted for the Magma Poetry Prize 2012, and Commended in the William Soutar Prize 2013.
Her poetry has been anthologised by Offa’s Press in The Poetry of Shropshire (2013), Grey Hen Press in Running Before the Wind (2013), by Cinnamon Press in The Book of Euclid (2012), and in Shropshire Butterflies (Fair Acre Press 2010).
She has read at Poetry@TheIvory in Glasgow, Shore Poets in Edinburgh, Wigtown Book Festival 2012 and 2013, StAnza International Poetry Festival 2013, Wenlock Poetry Festival 2013, Dartington Hall Ways With Words Festival 2013 and for Scottish Poetry Library at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2013.