Pauline Rowe

I am a writer and poet. I have nine poetry publications and my collection The Weight of Snow (Maytree Press, 2021) won a Saboteur award for best poetry pamphlet. I’ve been an RLF Fellow at the University of Chester. I am also writer in residence for The People of Anfield Project, commissioned and funded by Culture Liverpool and Open Eye gallery. I run a monthly community writing group that meets at Kitty’s Launderette, a worker’s co-operative on the border of Anfield and Everton wards. I am working on this project with my colleague Emma Case, photographer in residence, and we are planning an exhibition of socially engaged work with local project participants at Open Eye gallery in Autumn 2024. I have a demonstrable commitment to community arts and socially engaged work, promoting literature with local people through reading and writing.

I founded and ran the local charity North End Writers as project lead from 2006 to 2020; we delivered literary events, workshops, heritage, and wellbeing projects and attracted funds and support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Awards for All, local health commissioners and trusts and grant-making bodies. As poet in residence with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust from 2013 to 2020 I delivered regular workshops to service users and staff as well as responding to specific writing commissions to produce new work. As the first writer in residence at Open Eye gallery from 2016 to 2019 I produced new writing materials for photography exhibitions, interviewed photographers, developed new work for exhibition and creatively collaborated with a range of photographers, including Tony Mallon, Robert Parkinson, Becky Warnock, and Dave Lockwood. My most recent publication, Vestige (Maytree Press, 2023), is a poetry-photography collection in collaboration with photographer A. J. Wilkinson. I have put a hold on my next publication which was due to be published in February 2024.

My writing life includes an interest in creative nonfiction, reviews, and the novel, as well as a commitment to reading. In 2021 I was a joint recipient of a MaxLiteracy award. This award enabled me to work with Open Eye gallery, MaxLiteracy, ENGAGE and Wirral Hospitals’ schools to deliver a project for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils who have medical and educational support needs. I produced the teaching resource Writing Through Photographs which is available on the MaxLiteracy website. In 2023 I was the local judge for the Wirral Poetry festival. I am committed to improving and developing my skills as a writer through study, work and providing creative opportunities for other people. My formal qualifications include an MA in Creative Practice, a Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (DTLLS), and a PhD from the University of Liverpool.