Well-published poet, author and journalist; mentor; visual and land artist.
I run a programme of inspiring creative and reflective writing courses called FIRE IN THE HEAD (www.fire-in-the-head.co.uk), featured in several broadsheet papers.
Much of my own work and also the courses and workshops I run take their inspiration from the landscape. I love rural site-specific cross artform work. Recently I'm focusing more and more on environmental awareness. I now run a series of workshops for primary, secondary and tertiary education (as well as for individual adults) called 'GROUND OF BEING: re-imagining the world'. These can take place outdoors anywhere; at the moment I work on Dartmoor and the Devon and Cornish coasts, and in the Hebrides.
I'm very interested in writing for personal development and in therapy, and in the connections between creativity and wellbeing. I have written widely on this.
2010: I'm part-time poet-in-residence at Dauntseys School in Wiltshire; my brief includes working outisde in the megalithic landscape of Avebury with pupils, as well as in English (of course), Maths, Chemistry and Biology depts.
Numerous publications: poems, essays, articles, short stories, books, artist's editions. Latest books (2005): 'Writing the Bright Moment - inspiration & guidance for writers' (Arts Council supported) and 'Looking For Icarus' (poetry). New novel, 'Imago', forthcoming in March 2011; followed by a collection of prose-poems, 'Bardo', in May 2011. Another novel and another collection of poems are also scheduled; and in 2011 my long poem 'River Suite' will appear in a limited edition with the stunning water photography of Vikky Minette. 2010 sees my work appearing in 4 anthologies.
I've had poems on the buses, in a cathedral, carved into stone, wood and metal, etched into glass, set to music and printed on T-shirts. I often work alongside public artist and sculptor Michael Fairfax on interdisciplinary projects and courses.
My work has been regularly commissioned by organisations such as DAISI: also see Summary above.
I also tutor for the Arvon Foundation and previously the Open College of the Arts. I've run numerous courses and workshops in education, from primary to Oxford University; I've worked outdoors for the Dartmoor National Park; have been poet-in-residence at Sherborne School (winter 04/05); was Artistic Director for Writing on the Wild Side, Dartmoor's literary festival. Co-tutored Chrysalis poetry correspondence course.
Keynote opening speaker at the LAPIDUS conference September 07; followed by a reading, lecture and workshop tour of Switzerland.
I've worked with musicians, dancers, actors, painters, printmakers, textile artists, sculptors and other writers. I am the writing member of the occasional environmental arts group Genius Loci, working on-site at Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset, and the Cotswold Water Park.
I'm a regular columnist ('Writing Your Self') for MsLexia.
Roselle Angwin was appointed Poet in Residence at Sherborne School in 2004 and served in that position form October 2004 to the end of March 2005. I and the Second Master interviewed her for the post. She was the best candidate in a strong field.
Her residency at Sherborne has been marked by her energy and enthusiasm for poetry, which she has infused into the daily work of the School. She has interested herself in every aspect of the academic life of the School, visiting lessons ranging from UVI Chemistry to Learning Support tutorials. She was an active participant in the Third Form Creative Activity week, known here as Focus Week. She has taught poetry lessons within the English curriculum, and has organised a very successful group of young experimental poets and prose writers outside the timetable and curriculum. The considerable volume of poetry that has been produced during her all too short stay is being collected into an anthology, which she and a group of senior boys is publishing.
She has also brought a number of prominent poets into Sherborne, such as Mario Petrucci and Rupert Loydell, who have run successful workshops and poetry readings. Given how little time was available to her, and given the tightness of the work schedule at Sherborne, her achievement in having organised these events is considerable.
Her relationship with teaching colleagues has been warm and very productive. Colleagues whom one would not normally have tought interested in poetry have invited her to work with their teaching sets. She has also taken a close, sympathetic, and extremely helpful interest in the attempts at verse by one or two of her adult colleagues in the common-room. Her presence has brought a new perspective to the teaching effort in the School.
In the midst of all of this activity she has found some time to produce some work of her own, some of which she shared with us at the most recent of the poetry reading evenings.
I have found her a delightful person to work with, a feeling I am confident I share with many others. She is dutiful and reliable; energetic and imaginative; loyal and cheerful. It would be hard to imagine a more congenial colleague. Coming into a coommon-room and a school midway through the Michaelmas term is by no means easy. She found her feet without treading on toes, in my experience, a rare accomplishment. She has enlivened the literary and cultural life of the School, and has initiated things which we feel strongly inclined to sustain after she leaves.
I would warmly recommend her without qualification to any school seeking a residing poet. She is clearly a highly experienced organiser and facilitator of writing workshops and poetry classes. Her experience, her friendly personality, her evident sincerity, and her powers as a poet all make her an ideal incumbent of such a post.
Head of English, Sherborne School, Dorset
I have known Roselle Angwin for nearly ten years.
A tireless facilitator for students and contemporaries alike, Roselle has made possible a great many creative writing projects in the West Country. She is adept at facilitating creativity and skills resources for other writers of all ages.
I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Roselle. She is professional, entirely reasonable and organised. She plans all her projects well (almost to a fault) and yet remains flexible to changing circumstances.
Having worked with Roselle in a variety of teaching contexts, including co-tutoring on several Arvon courses, I have experienced first hand her positive approach, her immense alertness to student character and her consummate professionalism.
Certainly, Roselle's honesty and integrity are beyong reproach - indeed, she may well raise issues concerning the ethics of a situation which other tutors would gloss. Personally, I find this aspect of her working practice admirable and relatively rare.
On the other hand, I would not wish to give the impression that Roselle creates unnecessary difficulties. She works extremely well with organisers and staff, and in my experience has been universally liked. She is task-oriented and will move mountains to make a difficult project yield fruit. She is also open to constructive criticism though, at the same time, she will hold her ground if she feels the project (or some aspect of student well-being) is being compromised. I have no reason to believe that Rosell would be anything but excellent in the company of children, in whatever context.
Royal Literary Fund Project Fellow
Oxford Brooks University