Helen Calcutt
Helen Calcutt is a British poet and writer.[1] She is the first writer-in-residence to be appointed by the Clent Hills National Trust.[2] She is currently Poet-in-Residence at Loughborough University.
Biography
Helen Calcutt was brought up in the Black Country in Walsall. She received a First Class (BA) Honours Degree in Philosophy & Creative and Professional Writing. She originally trained as a professional dancer before becoming a writer.
Described as 'radical...uncompromising' (Perdika Press) 'much like Emily Dickinson, surprising and new' (Poetry Salzburg) [3] her poetry marks the presence of a compelling new literary voice. Also with credits to Nine Arches Press 'Strident and precise, Helen Calcutt's poems have an unflinching clarity that seeks to renew and refocus how we see the world around us. Taking root in influences and environments that are definitively of the midlands, her writing explores the hinterland between humans and nature, between shifting landscapes and wildness. All the time, her poetry is alive and attentive to the voice's unique, powerful music.'
Calcutt's work has received global publication featuring in over fifty journals, from The New Yorker and Poetry Salzburg, to arts and fashion journal House of Coco. Calcutt has worked with institutions as diverse as Poetry International,[4] Andrew Motion's Poetry By Heart and The National Trust. She writes literary reviews for journals such as the Wales Arts Review, Bare Fiction, and The Times Literary Supplement.
Calcutt's debut collection 'Sudden rainfall' was published by Perdika Press in September 2013, and was listed for the PBS Pamphlet Choice Award.[5]
Choreography and écriture corporelle - a 'bodily writing'
Calcutt is also a leading dance practitioner and choreographer. She is co-founder and director of project écriture corporelle or 'Bodily Writing'.[6] Inspired by Stéphane Mallarme's theory that "the dancer, writing with her body…suggests things which the written work could express only in several paragraphs of dialogue or descriptive prose” the project looks to explore the lines of dialogue between movement and language, in particular, how dance techniques can be embodied into the delivery of teaching of poetry within the National Curriculum.
The project officially launched at the Poetry International Festival in London in July 2014. It was followed by a performance at the Birmingham Literature Festival, with text-based inspired choreography from Owen Sheers' poem 'Last Act', and has since been endorsed by The Poetry Society, NAWE, First Story, and the University of Bolton.
Helen is currently company choreographer for Regional Voice Theatre, established in January 2016.
Sudden rainfall
Published by Perdika Press in September 2013 "Helen Calcutt’s new sequence confirms a compelling young voice whose quiet precision and intimate manner offer – to the attentive reader – an experience both delightful and deliberately unsettling. Working where all is movement, where the apparent solidity of the world is disturbed by the sure spotlight of intense metaphysical probing, Calcutt’s radical diction and subtle vigour combine to teach us exactly what “happens when light changes”.
References
- ↑ Bell, Jo. Bugged. Bell Jar Press, 2010pg 116
- ↑ Trust, National. "National Trust". National Trust Clent Hills.
- ↑ Salzburg, Poetry. Poetry Salzburg Review. Poetry Salzburg Review. p. 76. ISSN 1561-5871.
- ↑ Poetry International (21 July 2014). "Dance-Poetry Workshop with Helen Calcutt". Southbank Centre.
- ↑ rainfall, Sudden (September 2013). Sudden rainfall. London: Perdika Press. ISBN 9781905649174.
- ↑ "A Bodily Writing". Southbank Centre.