Rebecca Sharp is a writer and interdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses poetry, plays and performance; in spoken-word, installation, and print; collaborative and participatory projects. From Glasgow, now based in Fife.
She is currently the inaugural Artist in Residence with the Centre for Energy Ethics (CEE) at the University of St Andrews, writing a new poetry collection for publication in 2024; supported by Creative Scotland and CEE.
In 2020 she received a Literature Matters Award from the Royal Society of Literature to write the poetry pamphlet collection Rough Currency (Tapsalteerie 2021), exploring our various entanglements with fossil fuels and the oil economy. A preview selection of the poems won 2nd Prize in The Art of Energy Awards 2021 (Centre for Energy Ethics).
She has held residencies with a range of organisations including METAL Liverpool, Edge Hill University, Creative Carbon Scotland, and StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival. She regularly reads at poetry and literature festivals, and in 2017 represented Scotland at the International Poetry Festival of Nicaragua in Granada.
She gained early teaching experience at the University of Glasgow, and later through association with The Windows Project in Liverpool. She continues to lead innovative workshops and participatory projects, independently and in partnership with a wide range of community groups, schools, HE institutions, arts and cultural organisations. She is included in the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature database.
She has been a past Trustee of Scottish PEN; and is an Affiliate Member of the Centre for Energy Ethics (University of St Andrews). She co-runs Souterrain Press, for the occasional production of increasingly niche projects.
Poetry includes Rough Currency (Tapsalteerie 2021), exploring our various entanglements with fossil fuels and the oil economy: RSL Literature Matters Awards, and the Art of Energy Awards (Centre for Energy Ethics, University of St Andrews).
Notes for a Traveller (2021 Souterrain Press), a visual poetry installation commissioned by An Lanntair. THIS (2020, with Steve Smart) - Finalist in the Brush & Lyre Prize for Multimedia Poetry; commissioned by StAnza Poetry Festival and Book Week Scotland. Unmapped (2013, exhibition and publication of poems and paintings with artist Anna King); and The Ballad of Juniper Davy and Sonny Lumiere (2010, publication and performances with artist Elizabeth Willow and METAL Liverpool). In 2016 she was Poet-Perfumer in Residence with StAnza Poetry Festival, where she created the site-specific installation of poems and perfume blends Five Charms for the Potingair. From this she created a limited edition box-set of the same name (containing the poems with vials of perfume - "irresistible", Times Literary Supplement); and developed Poetry Apothecary - a participatory workshop combining poetry-writing with perfume-blending, which ran from 2016-2020.
Plays include Last Child (Arches theatre, Glasgow 2001 and HERE Arts Center, NYC 2002); Danger: Hollow Sidewalk (Arches theatre, 2006); The Wakeful Chamber (A Play, A Pie & A Pint/Sound Festival - Lemon Tree, Aberdeen and Oran Mor, Glasgow 2015); and The Air That Carries The Weight (Traverse theatre, Stellar Quines theatre company - Edinburgh 2016).
Other work for performance includes: For the Bees (with Mr McFall’s Chamber); The Unmaking of Mary Somerville (Stellar Quines theatre company and Scottish National Portrait Gallery); and Rules of the Moon (with sound artist Philip Jeck – The Bluecoat, Liverpool and Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh).
She has received support from the Tom McGrath Trust, Creative Scotland, Arts Council England, Playwrights' Studio Scotland, Society of Authors, Scottish Book Trust, Gaelic Books Council, and StAnza poetry festival.
Rebecca regularly devises and runs independent workshops; as well as in partnership with schools and HE institutions, arts and heritage organisations. She has experience of working with all ages and abilities, in a range of formal and informal structures and settings. These have included:
PISTON, PEN & PRESS (2021): with University of Strathclyde and Historic Environment Scotland / Stanley Mills. Working with local Primary groups to explore the history of Stanley Mills and Victorian industrial literary culture. Students wrote their own poems, created a publication and a class Literary Society.
NEW DECLARATIONS (2020-21): with Hospitalfield and Arbroath 2020+1 Festival. Rebecca devised a creative writing engagement project for young people, responding to the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath in 2020; considering issues of freedom in a contemporary context. Authors contributed individual short pieces of writing following a series of online workshops. Rebecca edited and compiled the final collaborative text, honouring individual voices while weaving them together to a cohesive whole, echoing the form of the original 1320 Declaration.
JOURNEYS INTO THE LITERARY LANDSCAPE (2016-20): with Falkland Centre for Stewardship, session leader then project coordinator for a recurring programme of creative / writing workshops funded by YouthLink Scotland. Working with teenagers and young people in Fife, exploring outdoor environments and making creative visual and written work in response, working with a range of artists and art forms.
POETRY APOTHECARY (2016-20): a series of independent public workshops combining poetry/creative writing with natural perfumery using essential oils. Exploring ideas of holistic creative practice alongside alchemy, aromatherapy, language-as-alchemy, scent and sustainability. Workshops took place at Falkland Centre for Stewardship, The Ecology Centre (Kinghorn, Fife), Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre (Edinburgh), Beckside Books (Penrith, with Wild Women Press).
PLAYWRIGHTS' STUDIO SCOTLAND (2019): public playwriting workshops with PSS at Perth theatre; and Outwith Festival, Dunfermline.
BYRE YOUTH & COMMUNITY ARTS (2019): working with the Byre Young Company to devise and write their own new play.
CARE: MAKING FOR GOOD (2019): with Fife Contemporary and Fife Carers, working with a group of adult carers using the Poetry Apothecary format (see above); producing new written and physical work.
WRITING TIME (2019): independent public workshop exploring links between poetry/creative writing and archaeological concepts, processes and techniques. At Falkland Centre for Stewardship, including a visit to the active dig at East Lomond Hillfort. Producing new written and visual work, and devising new techniques.
CREATIVE CARTOGRAPHIES (2018-19): independent workshop exploring literary maps and narrative worlds, demonstrating techniques of cartography and deep-mapping through creative writing. Held for public participants at Off the Rails Arthouse, Fife; and at Edge Hill University for MA Creative Writing students.
CLAY AND THE TAY (2017): with University of Dundee and a team of writers and artists to deliver sessions with Dundee primary groups, exploring the social and natural history of the Tay. Working with local clay to model visual work alongside poetry-writing.
THE WINDOWS PROJECT (2008-14): trained in the design, delivery and coordination of creative workshops and projects through the Writers’ Attachment Scheme. Delivered numerous sessions and projects working with The Windows Project; with Primary and Secondary mainstream and specialist schools; vulnerable adults and young people in community and public venues throughout Liverpool and the NW of England.