Author Archives: pollyrowena

There is currently a campaign running to seek Plastic Free Community status for Grasmere, the village in the English Lake District where I live. The campaign largely follows the guidelines laid out by Surfers against Sewage, who have an accreditation scheme which asks communities to aim for 5 objectives: Establish a steering group Have theContinue reading “#SuckItAbleism / On Not Going Plastic-Free”

2018 was my first full calendar year of freelancing, an implausible dream when I decided, after my academic contract ended in August 2017, to try it for six months and see how far I could get. Just before the close of 2017 I found out I’d been chosen as one of the writers to beContinue reading “2018 Digest”

June 4-10th 2018 is World Haemochromatosis Awareness Week.  Haemochromatosis is the (slightly misleading) name for Iron Overload, whereby iron builds up in the body to toxic levels, and is stored in the organs, leading to long-term and eventually irreversible damage. The genetic form – known in the UK as Genetic Haemochromatosis (GH) and elsewhere asContinue reading “Test your metal”

In the next few months I have work coming out in two shiny new mixed-genre anthologies, and a new poetry pamphlet. The first of the anthologies is Gush: Menstrual Manifestos for our Times, which is edited by Ariel Gordon, Tanis MacDonald, and Rosanna Deerchild, and published by Frontenac House in Calgary. My contribution is a couple of venesection poems, fromContinue reading “news”

For poetry-lovers and the poetry curious in and around the Lakes, the good news is that the Discover Poetry reading group I’ve been facilitating at the Wordsworth Trust since the autumn has been given the green light to continue. Thanks to everyone who has come along, whether for a single session when you’ve been visiting theContinue reading “Keep on discovering poetry all through the year …”