Polly Atkin

Atkin was born in 1980 in Nottingham and grew up there, then lived seven years in East London before moving north. She has a PhD (2010) from Lancaster University, for which her thesis was "A place re-imagined : the cultural, literacy and spacial making of Dove Cottage, Grasmere".{{cite web |title=Catalogue record for "A place re-imagined ..." |url=https://lancaster.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9922964590001221&context=L&vid=44LAN_INST:LUL_VU1&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,place%20re-imagined%20dove&offset=0 |publisher=Lancaster University Library |access-date=8 May 2024}} She has an MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway, University of London,{{cite web |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Composition Notes: Polly Atkin |url=https://thelonelycrowd.org/2016/05/07/composition-notes-polly-atkin/ |website=The Lonely Crowd |access-date=8 May 2024 |date=7 May 2016 |quote=during my MA year at Royal Holloway}} for which her thesis was "Writing the Body Well: Poetry and Illness".{{cite web |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Academic Work |url=https://pollyatkin.com/academic-work/ |website=Shadow Dispatches |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |date=20 October 2013}}

Atkin taught English and creative writing at Lancaster University from 2010 to 2014, and at the University of Strathclyde from 2014 to 2017, and has since taught creative writing at the universities of Lancaster and Cumbria.

Atkin's pamphlet bone song was shortlisted for the first Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets, in 2009.{{cite web |title=Polly Atkin |url=https://saraband.net/contributor/polly-atkin/ |website=Saraband |access-date=8 May 2024}} Her second pamphlet, Shadow Dispatches (2013), won the Mslexia pamphlet prize,{{cite web |title=Polly Atkin |url=https://weeklypoems.brookes.ac.uk/tag/polly-atkin/ |website=Oxford Brookes Weekly Poems |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |date=6 March 2018}}{{cite web |title=On winning ... |url=https://mslexia.co.uk/whatson/msbusiness/pamcomp_winning.php |publisher=Mslexia |access-date=8 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928223845/https://mslexia.co.uk/whatson/msbusiness/pamcomp_winning.php |archive-date=28 September 2013 |url-status=dead}} and was shortlisted for the 2014 Lakeland Book of the Year.{{cite news |title=20 authors make final shortlist for the Lakeland Book of the Year |url=https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/11291497.20_authors_make_final_shortlist_for_the_Lakeland_Book_of_the_Year/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=The Westmorland Gazette |date=20 June 2014 |language=en}}

Her first book-length collection, Basic Nest Architecture, was published in 2017; it was divided into three sections, with poems relating to her move from London to the Lake district, earlier places and topics, and her current experience of living with chronic illness.{{cite news |last1=Evans |first1=Suzannah |title=Information not flowers |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/polly-atkin/ |access-date=24 May 2024 |work=TLS |date=12 January 2018}}{{cite web |title=Basic Nest Architecture by Polly Atkin |url=https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/basic-nest-architecture-by-polly-atkin |website=The Poetry Book Society |access-date=24 May 2024 |language=en}} It included several poems which had previously won prizes or been shortlisted in competitions.{{cite news |last1=Hockey |first1=Jenny |title=Basic Nest Architecture: Polly Atkin, Seren |url=https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=74587 |access-date=24 May 2024 |work=Write Out Loud |date=8 February 2018 |language=en-gb}}

In 2018, Atkin was writer in residence at Gladstone's Library.{{cite web |title=Writers in Residence 2018 |url=https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/events/writers-in-residence/writers-in-residence-2018 |website=Gladstone's Library |access-date=8 May 2024}} In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was awarded a Northern Writers Award for Poetry, and said of it "This award not only offers creative encouragement when I really need it, but financial support which will make continuing to create possible. It has saved my year."{{cite web |title=Winners 2020 |url=https://newwritingnorth.com/northern-writers-awards/winners-by-year/winners-2020/ |website=New Writing North |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}}

Atkin's 2021 biography of Dorothy Wordsworth, Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth, draws on Dorothy's letters and unpublished diaries and "argues for Dorothy's place in the writing of illness".{{cite web |title=Recovering Dorothy |url=https://saraband.net/sb-title/recovering-dorothy/ |website=Saraband |access-date=8 May 2024}}{{cite news |title=The Guardian view on Dorothy Wordsworth: a rare achievement |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/19/the-guardian-view-on-dorothy-wordsworth-a-rare-achievement |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=19 December 2021}} It was longlisted for the 2022 Barbellion Prize for books by ill or disabled writers.{{cite web |title=Winners, Shortlists, & Longlists |url=https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/winners-shortlists-longlists |website=The Barbellion Prize |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}} Her 2021 poetry collection Much With Body was described in Wales Arts Review as "an exploration of pain and illness refracted through the geographical lens of the Lake District, and the often overlooked writings of Dorothy Wordsworth".{{cite news |last1=Roach |first1=Isobel |title=Much With Body – Polly Atkin |url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/much-with-body-polly-atkin-poetry/ |access-date=24 May 2024 |work=www.walesartsreview.org |date=25 February 2022}}

Her 2023 memoir Some of Us Just Fall won the 2024 Lakeland Book of the Year.{{cite web |title=Landmark 40th Lakeland Book of the Year winners revealed |url=https://www.cumbriatourism.org/landmark-40th-lakeland-book-of-the-year-winners-revealed/ |website=www.cumbriatourism.org |publisher=Cumbria Tourism |access-date=24 July 2024 |date=10 July 2024}} It has been described as "a raw and exquisite meditation on chronic illness and our place within the landscape",{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Lauren |title=Sceptre lands 'exquisite' meditation on chronic illness by prize-winning poet Polly Atkin |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/sceptre-lands-exquisite-meditation-on-chronic-illness-by-prize-winning-poet-polly-atkin |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=The Bookseller |date=8 September 2022 |language=En}} "An empowered and patient story, at times murky and tedious, but still poignant",{{cite news |title=Some of Us Just Fall |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/polly-atkin/some-of-us-just-fall/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=26 December 2023 |language=en}} and "Essentially ... a book about bearing the unbearable".{{cite news |last1=Johnstone |first1=Lindsay |title='Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better' by Polly Atkin |url=https://glasgowreviewofbooks.com/2023/10/02/some-of-us-just-fall-on-nature-and-not-getting-better-by-polly-atkin/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=Glasgow Review of Books |date=2 October 2023}}

She is a founder and director of The Gravestone Project, "a digital humanities collective that brings together scholars, taphophiles, students, writers, teachers, and others interested in history, literature, and the arts, to think about the various ways that people memorialize the dead".{{cite web |title=The Gravestone Project – culture / literature / memorialization |url=http://thegravestoneproject.com/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}}
{{cite web |title=Project Collaborators |url=http://thegravestoneproject.com/about-the-project/project-collaborators/ |publisher=The Gravestone Project |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}}

She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.{{cite web |title=Atkin, Polly |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/polly-atkin/ |website=Royal Society of Literature |date=September 2023 |access-date=8 May 2024}}

• 2024 Lakeland Book of the Year for Some of Us Just Fall{{cite web |title=Landmark 40th Lakeland Book of the Year winners revealed |url=https://www.cumbriatourism.org/landmark-40th-lakeland-book-of-the-year-winners-revealed/ |website=www.cumbriatourism.org |publisher=Cumbria Tourism |access-date=24 July 2024 |date=10 July 2024}}

Atkin has one of the Ehlers–Danlos syndromes and genetic haemochromatosis, and writes and talks about living with chronic illness especially in relation to rural life and access to nature.{{cite web |title=About |url=https://pollyatkin.com/about/ |website=Shadow Dispatches |publisher=Polly Atkin |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |date=18 October 2013}} She was a speaker at the 2023 Kendal Mountain Festival{{cite web |title=Polly Atkin - Some of Us Just Fall |url=https://tickets.kendalmountainfestival.com/events/18-11-2023-18-15-polly-atkin-some-of-us-just-fall |website=Kendal Mountain Festival |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}} but published an open letter criticising the announcement that the festival's events would not be filmed that year, announced as an "enrichment" at short notice, arguing that this deprived many people, because of disability, geography, finance or other barriers, of the joy of access to the festival whose theme, that year, was "joy".{{cite web |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Open Letter About Access and Exclusion at Kendal Mountain Festival |url=https://pollyatkin.com/2023/11/15/open-letter-about-access-and-exclusion-at-kendal-mountain-festival/ |website=Shadow Dispatches |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |date=15 November 2023}}

Atkins lives in Grasmere, Cumbria. In 2023 she and her partner Will Smith bought Sam Read's, Grasmere's independent bookshop established in 1887, where Smith had worked since 2012.{{cite news |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Plague Year Season 4 Review |url=https://pollyatkin.com/2023/12/31/plague-year-season-4-review/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=Shadow Dispatches |date=31 December 2023 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Spanoudi |first1=Melina |title=Smith and Atkin take over Sam Read Bookshop |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/smith-and-atkin-take-over-sam-read-bookshop |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=The Bookseller |date=24 October 2023 |language=En}}{{cite web |title=Home page |url=https://www.samreadbooks.co.uk/ |website=Sam Read Bookseller |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en}}

• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Some of Us Just Fall: On nature and not getting better |date=2023 |publisher=Sceptre |location=London |isbn=9781399717984}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Recovering Dorothy: the hidden life of Dorothy Wordsworth |date=2021 |publisher=Saraband |location=Salford |isbn=9781913393175}} (On Dorothy Wordsworth)

• {{cite book |editor-last1=Bushell |editor-first1=Sally |last=Atkin | first=Polly |title=The Cambridge Companion to 'Lyrical Ballads' |date=9 January 2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-41632-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-oDCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |chapter=Collaboration, Domestic Co-Partnery and Lyrical Ballads |pages=32–48}} (On Lyrical Ballads)
• {{cite book |editor-last1=George |editor-first1=Sam |editor-last2=Hughes |editor-first2=Bill |title=In the company of wolves: Werewolves, wolves and wild children |date=5 February 2020 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-2905-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqjODwAAQBAJ&dq=Company+of+Wolve&pg=PT5 |language=en|chapter='Stinking of me': Transformations and animal selves in contemporary Anglophone women's poetry|last=Atkin | first=Polly}}
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Bode |editor-first1=Christoph |editor-last2=Labbe |editor-first2=Jacqueline |title=Romantic Localities: Europe Writes Place |date=6 October 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-32431-7 |pages=81–98 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvM5CgAAQBAJ&dq=bode+romantic+localities&pg=PR7 |language=en |chapter=Paradox Inn: Home and Passing Through at Grasmere | last=Atkin | first=Polly}} (On Grasmere)
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Watson |editor-first1=Nicola |title=Literary Tourism and Nineteenth-Century Culture |date=31 March 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-23410-9 |pages=84–94 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_paIDAAAQBAJ&dq=Literary+Tourism+and+Nineteenth+Century+Culture+watson&pg=PR5 |language=en |chapter=Ghosting Grasmere: the musealisation of Dove Cottage | last=Atkin | first=Polly}} (On Dove Cottage)

• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Much With Body |date=2021 |publisher=Seren |location=Bridgend |isbn=9781781726457}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=With Invisible Rain |date=2018 |publisher=New Walk Editions |location=Leicester |isbn=9781999802639}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Basic Nest Architecture |date=2017 |publisher=Seren |location=Bridgend |isbn=9781781723739}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=Shadow Dispatches |date=2013 |publisher=Seren |location=Bridgend |isbn=9781781726457}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atkin |first1=Polly |title=bone song |date=2008 |publisher=Aussteiger |location=Clitheroe|isbn= 9781872764160}}

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|https://pollyatkin.com}}
• {{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=David Tait interviews Polly Atkin |url=https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/2020/02/19/david-tait-interviews-polly-atkin/ |website=The Poetry Business |access-date= |date=19 February 2020}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkin, Polly}}

Category:1980 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century English women writers

Category:21st-century English poets

Category:Academics of Lancaster University

Category:Academics of the University of Strathclyde

Category:Alumni of Lancaster University

Category:Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London

Category:English women poets

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:People with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome

Category:Writers from Cumbria

Category:Writers from Nottingham