Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is a poet and academic, formerly Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Newman University in Birmingham, Associate Professor at Northumbria University, and a Leverhulme Research Fellow for 2021-22.[1][2][3][4][5] She has been described as an 'ecopoet'[6] who curates 'ecopoetic' exhibitions.[7] She is interested in nature writing, as well as place and family heritage.[8]

Early life and education

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Burnett was born in Devon. Her mother is Kenyan while her father was born to a farming family in Ide, Devon.[9][10][11] She studied English at Oxford, after which she attended Royal Holloway, University of London, to study for an MA and PhD in Contemporary Poetics.[1][12]

Burnett also studied performance at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York and Naropa.[12]

Awards

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Burnett was named in the 10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize, for her book of poetry, nature-writing, and memoire, Twelve Words for Moss.[13]

Publications

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Burnett has published two poetry collections with Penned in the Margins, 'Swims' and 'Of Sea'.[12] Both books are concerned with the environment and activism, and Burnett is interested in how 'poetry can raise consciousness by bringing the effects of climate change or pollution to life'.[1] 'Swims' documents experiences of wild swimming across the England and Wales,[14] and was featured as a Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year in 2017.[15][16]

Her poetry features in the anthologies Dear World and Everyone In It: New Poetry in the UK (Bloodaxe, 2013) and Out of Everywhere 2: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America and the UK (Reality Street, 2015). Wasafiri 106: the Water issue (2021), features three poems by Burnett.[4]

Her PhD thesis was published as A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities: The Gift, the Wager, and Poethics (2017) by Palgrave Macmillan.[17]

The Grassling, A Geological Memoir (2019) was a winner of the Penguin Random House WriteNow award.[2]

She published 'Rivering', a pamphlet of poems, with Oystercatcher Press in 2019.[18]

In 2021, Burnett was commissioned by the National Trust to create a poem responding to nature observations made by members of the public.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lea, Richard (16 November 2017). "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett: 'Swimming can give you the optimism to keep going'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". www.northumbria.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Newman's Dr Burnett receives Research Grant Scholarship". Newman University, Birmingham. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Wasafiri Wonders: Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Wasafiri Magazine. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". National Centre for Writing. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Dictionary of the soil". TLS. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  7. ^ "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Poetry Foundation. 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  8. ^ "The Quietus | Features | Tome On The Range | Listening To The Light Of Grass: Elizabeth-Jane Burnett's The Grassling". The Quietus. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  9. ^ "The Grassling by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett review – a geological memoir". The Guardian. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  10. ^ Armitstead, Presented by Claire; Tresilian, Richard Lea Produced by Susannah (9 April 2019). "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Ian Maleney on soil, family and loss – books podcast". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  11. ^ Burnett, Elizabeth-Jane (16 September 2020). "Walking back to happiness – in south Devon's hidden places". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  12. ^ a b c "Penned in the Margins | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  13. ^ "10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize Announced". Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  14. ^ Andrew Jeffrey (27 October 2017). "Review: 'Swims' by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett • Poetry School". Poetry School. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  15. ^ Noel-Tod, Jeremy. "Books of the year: Poetry". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  16. ^ "From 'swims' by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Little Toller Books. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  17. ^ Burnett, Elizabeth-Jane (2017). A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities: The Gift, the Wager, and Poethics. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-319-62294-1.
  18. ^ "Rivering by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Oystercatcher Press. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  19. ^ "National Trust calls for spring nature observations to create poem". The Guardian. 20 March 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.