Poetry

My poetry collections published by Bloodaxe Books are: Hidden River (2008, shortlisted for the Forward and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection awards); The Blue Den (2012) and The Conversation (2021 -‘her superb new collection @BloodaxeBooks’ Ian McMillan. (Click The Conversation title in the menu heading for recent review links). Here’s a link to Bloodaxe’s online launch of The Conversation (shared with Hannah Lowe and Selima Hill’s launches). Portsmouth Literary Map featured my poem, Ferries at Southsea, as their poem of the month recently and has posted a welcome review of The Conversation which you can read here. You can hear me reading some of my earlier poems on the Poetry Archive site.

Plays

Poetry is where I mostly live, but I have also had plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 including The Greatest Gift which won a Radio Times Drama Award, and stage plays performed on the London and Edinburgh Fringe.

Other Writing

I write occasional short podcasts such as ‘The Writer and Nature‘, ‘Loneliness and the Writer’ and ‘The Classic Book I’d Like to Rewrite’, articles, essays, reflections on keeping notebooks and reviews (click links to hear/read) and, on a good day, may translate poetry from Latin into contemporary versions – I still love Ovid. Thanks to Portsmouth Literary Map blog who have just published this piece, Revisiting the Mary Rose. With Dr Ellie Piddington, I edited a book of essays on Poetry and Voice (CSP, 2012). I also edited Chalk Poets (Sarsen Press, 2015) for Winchester Poetry Festival.  My novel, Storm, was shortlisted for the Cinnamon Literature Award 2019. I contributed an essay to Architectural Space and the Imagination (Palgrave, 2020). I researched and wrote a study of poetry trails for South Downs National Park Association.

University Teaching

For many years, I taught at the University of Chichester where I was a Reader in Creative Writing, PhD supervisor and ran the MA in Creative Writing. I have been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Southampton for the last three years (2019-2021).

Freelance writer and tutor

I was the Otter Gallery poet-in-residence (2010-2018), a Poetry School and London Parks and Gardens Poet in Residence at Fann Street Wildlife Garden (2015) and have given site-specific creative writing workshops in National Trust properties, The Weald and Downland Living Museum, Pallant House and for Reading the South. I enjoy giving writing workshops tailored to a particular location -having grown up in Selborne, a sense of place is very important to me – please contact me via direct message @StephanieNorgat on Twitter if your group is interested in an on-location or themed writing workshops. Sadly, I can’t give workshops for free (my preparation is extensive – on-location workshops demand something different every time), though I sometimes waive the fee for a charity.