Kathryn Simmonds
Poet, Children's writer
About
Kathryn Simmonds is a poet and children’s writer. Her debut collection of poems, Sunday at the Skin Launderette (Seren, 2008), won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and was a Poetry Book Society recommendation. She is particularly drawn to imagery in her work, and often writes about the spirituality of everyday life, a theme which recurs in her two later collections, The Visitations (Seren 2014), and Scenes from Life on Earth (Salt, 2022). Her poems have been translated into several languages, appeared in anthologies and been broadcast on BBC Radio. A selection of poems is available on the Poetry Archive.
A life-long enthusiast of picture books, she has published six books for young children, with more in the pipeline. She enjoys the breadth of the picture book form and the collaborative process of working with illustrators, and as with poetry finds writing them both exacting and liberating. Her picture books include Be my Sunflower (Walker, 2024), Trouble at the Bug Hotel (Walker, 2025) shortlisted for an East Anglian Book award, and Princes Don’t Practise (Macmillan, 2026). Over the years she has also published articles and short fiction, with a comic afternoon play and a number of stories broadcast on Radio 4.
Kathryn has extensive experience as a poetry mentor and writing tutor. She has tutored for The Poetry School and other organisations for many years, and partnered with arts organisations to take writing workshops into the community. She lives in Norwich with her husband and their two daughters.