Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is a poet and academic who is known for her publications in nature writing. Following her PhD studies in contemporary poetics, which led to the publication of a monograph titled A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities (2017), she published two full-length poetry collections and held positions as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birmingham Newman University and Leverhulme Research Fellow for 2021–22.[1][2][3][4][5] She continues teaching at Northumbria University. Her work covers place, environment, and family heritage, and she curates ecopoetic exhibitions.[6][7]
Early life and education
[edit]Burnett was born in Devon. Her mother is Kenyan while her father was born to a farming family in Ide, Devon.[8][9][10] 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][11]
Burnett also studied performance at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York and Naropa.[11]
Career
[edit]Burnett has published two poetry collections with Penned in the Margins, Swims (2017) and Of Sea (2021).[11] 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,[12] and was featured as a Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year in 2017.[13][14] Of Sea is a type of "poetic bestiary" with 46 poems that describe encounters with various invertebrate marine fauna inhabiting salt marshes and coastal tidepools. An early note in the collection implies that these encounters occur while swimming, as if it's an extension of Swims, continuing a "fluid perspective of an intriguing poetic project."[15] She published Rivering, a pamphlet of poems, with Oystercatcher Press in 2019.[16]
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]
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]
The Grassling: A Geological Memoir (2019) was a winner of the Penguin Random House WriteNow Award.[2]
In 2021, Burnett was commissioned by the National Trust to create a poem responding to nature observations made by members of the public.[18]
Awards
[edit]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.[19]
Publications
[edit] |
Academic work / monograph
[edit]- A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities: The Gift, the Wager, and Poethics (2017)
Poetry collections or pamphlets
[edit]- Swims (2017)
- Rivering (2019)
- Of Sea (2021)
Memoir
[edit]- The Grassling: A Geological Memoir (2019)
Anthology contributions
[edit]- Dear World and Everyone In It: New Poetry in the UK (2013)
- Out of Everywhere 2: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America and the UK (2015)
- Wasafiri 106: The Water Issue (2021)
References
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". www.northumbria.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "Newman's Dr Burnett receives Research Grant Scholarship". Newman University, Birmingham. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ a b "Wasafiri Wonders: Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Wasafiri Magazine. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". National Centre for Writing. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Poetry Foundation. 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "The Quietus | Features | Tome On The Range | Listening To The Light Of Grass: Elizabeth-Jane Burnett's The Grassling". The Quietus. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "The Grassling by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett review – a geological memoir". The Guardian. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Burnett, Elizabeth-Jane (16 September 2020). "Walking back to happiness – in south Devon's hidden places". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ a b c "Penned in the Margins | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ Andrew Jeffrey (27 October 2017). "Review: 'Swims' by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett • Poetry School". Poetry School. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ Noel-Tod, Jeremy. "Books of the year: Poetry". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "From 'swims' by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Little Toller Books. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ Hyder, Amaan (7 April 2022). "Review - Of Sea by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, and Thinking With Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant • Poetry School". Poetry School. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
- ^ "Rivering by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett". Oystercatcher Press. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "National Trust calls for spring nature observations to create poem". The Guardian. 20 March 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ "10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize Announced". Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 25 August 2023.