About Katherine Gallagher

Biographical Note

I am a widely-published Australian poet resident in London. My books include The Eye's Circle (Rigmarole, 1974), Passengers to the City (Hale & Iremonger, 1985), Fish-rings on Water (Forest Books, 1989), Finding the Prince (Hearing Eye Pamphlet Series, 1993), a translation of Jean-Jacques Celly's poems, The Sleepwalker with Eyes of Clay (Forest Books, 1994), Tigers on the Silk Road (Arc Publications, 2000), After Kandinsky (Vagabond Press, 2005, Chapbook Rare Object Series), Circus-Apprentice (Arc Publications, 2006) and most recently, Carnival Edge: New & Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2010), launched at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies on April 14, 2010. See http://www.arcpublications.co.uk
My books with Arc Publications are distributed in Australia by Eleanor Brasch Enterprises (brasch2@aol.com) Passengers to the City was shortlisted for the 1986 John Bray National Poetry Award. Winner of the 1981 Brisbane Warana Prize.
Until 2008, I was Writers Inc/Blue Nose Poets’ Education Officer but unfortunately, due to funding cuts, Writers Inc can no longer continue. From July - October, 2002, I was Writer in Residence at Railway Fields Nature Reserve, Harringay, London. N4.

In 2004-5, I co-ordinated on behalf of Writers Inc an Arts Council-funded Young Writers’ Mentorship Project to work in twelve secondary schools in the Boroughs of Barnet, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey and Islington. Other participating poets were Mario Petrucci whose idea it was originally and Sue Hubbard. The Project was very successful and showed the need for such one-to-one mentoring as a spur to fledgling writers for they rarely have such direct access to established writer-tutors.

On July 17, 2006, I was Poet in Residence for the third annual Parks and Arts Healthy Lifestyle Walk in Hornchurch Country Park, London Borough of Havering organised by their Parks, Arts and Regeneration Services.
Co-ordinated as an Arts Walk by Arts Officer Chris Cole, the idea was to use the Walk to celebrate walking and healthy eating.There were 50 participants under very sunny skies. Part of my brief was to write a poem of the Walk to accompany the photographs, poems and reflections sent in by the participants. The poem was displayed as a poster in libraries and around the Borough and sent to local media.

In March, 2007, I started a Poetry Society Stanza Group around the Palmers Green-Southgate-Tottenham-Hornsey-Wood Green area. This was listed by the Poetry Society as the Palmers Green-Tottenham Stanza. However, due to the residential base of our membership's being different, we asked for it to be changed to London North. The Stanza meets to discuss poems and other matters on the first Friday of each month. It is proving very useful as a meeting point for the group’s various interests. In May, 2008, we had our first Stanza reading at Wood Green’s Big Green Bookshop, and have had various readings since in other venues.

Interviews

Interview - March 2000 with Ted Slade for the Poetry Kit on http://www.poetrykit.org

Interview - January 2006 with Professor Lidia Vianu (University of Bucharest) on http://www.lidiavianu.scriptmania.com

Interview - February 2007 with Elena Nistor.
Published in Caiete Internationale de Poezie – International Notebook of Poetry Nr. 8/2007. Poems in Translation: East and West Essays on Poets and Poetry.
This International Notebook is an annual publication sponsored by the Romanian Writers & Artists’ International Association – LiterArt - XXI
The interview is accompanied by 10 Poems from Circus-Apprentice translated into Romanian by Elena Nistor (Link to the magazine website to be added shortly).

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