Please note: Angela is now ambulatory disabled as the result of a serious fracture which has affected her mobility long term. She can walk using a walker or stick, sometimes using a wheelchair. She can climb steps provided there are handrails, and to do stairs requires a double handrail. Angela still does readings and workshops but her requirements as a registered disabled person with a blue badge need to be taken into account by bookers. 

Angela is a poet. She is also an experienced teacher and holds Masters degrees in English Literature and in Arts in Education. She leads workshops with all ages from nursery to elders, building confidence in their ability to write, tell stories and make books. She enjoys performing, both her own work and themed programmes.  Widely published, she has read her work in a wide range of venues, such as schools, libraries, bookshops and hospices. In October 2013, she took up a residency in Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden. In 2014, she took an exhibition to StAnza, of poems and art work based on re-discovered family letters, a collaboration with artist Maria Walker. That exhibition also featured at The Brindley, Runcorn, and Waterside Art Gallery at Sale, and the last one was at Salford Museum and Art gallery.

In 2011, a quotation from one of her poems appeared on the National Poetry Day poem cards and the same poem featured in the athletics area of the Olympic stadium during the Games. In 2014, one of her poems, ‘Little Houses’ was featured on the National Poetry Day website. A commissioned poem for StAnza, in conjunction with St Andrews University, featured on a postcard handed out at the festival, in 2018.

She was Highly Commended in the Cheshire High Sherriff’s Prize for Children’s Literature, with the only poem to be placed in the top five entries. In 2011, she was shortlisted for The Bridport Poetry Competition. In 2013, she won first prize in the Buzzwords Poetry Competition, judged by David Morley. She won First Prize in the 2018 Crewe and Nantwich competition, judged by Roger Elkin. Poems have appeared in a range of journals including Poetry Review, The Dark Horse, Magma, The North, Stand and London Magazine.

Angela can be booked directly. She has judged several competitions, including one run by a leading examination board for all GCSE students, and several adult competitions, including two pamphlet competitions. For three years she was an adjudicator for the Silver medal verse-speaking awards for The Poetry Society.

Angela also writes student guides and articles. She co-authored a range of GCSE textbooks published by OUP and several critical monographs published by Greenwich Exchange. She has also contributed chapters to books on Creative Writing at Masters Level.

Angela is an former teacher, examiner, and moderator. She is qualified to teach both Secondary and Adult Education. She holds an annually updated DBS/ CRB registration.

In addition to working as a freelance poet, Angela is also an inset English Literature lecturer for Sovereign Education, has led residential poetry courses.

Her poetry is published

• In nine solo collections and four pamphlets
• by Macmillan, OUP, Hodder, Collins and Wayland in over 100 anthologies,
• poetry magazines/journals including Poetry Review, London Magazine, Critical Survey, Smoke, The North, The Dark Horse, The Interpreter’s House, Magma  and The Reader.

Media

• BSB TV
• interviewed on BBC Radio
• Three appearances so far on BBC Radio’s Poetry Please

Publications

• Her first solo children’s collection is published by Salt, entitled The New Generation.
• Her solo adult poetry collections are Dandelions for Mothers’ Day  The Fiddle, both from Stride, and The Way We Came from bluechrome,  I Sing of Bricks (Salt Modern Voices 2011) Paper Patterns (Lapwing 2012), Letting Go (Mother’s Milk Books 2013), The Five Petals of Elderflower (Red Squirrel Press 2016). Her most recent collection is Earwig Country (Valley Press 2024)
• Pamphlets:  Catching On (Rack Press 2011), a ten poem elegy for Matt Simpson.  Kids’ Stuff (Erbacce 2011) poems for children. The Lightfoot Letters (Erbacce 2011) based on letters discovered by artist Maria Walker but written by Angela’s father’s family. This publication accompanied the collaborative exhibition. Her chapbook, Hearth,  was a collaboration with poet Sarah James. It was published by Mother’s Milk Books in 2015. It was launched at Cheltenham Poetry Festival, and one of the poems, ‘Crow Lines’, was commended in their Compound Poem competition. Another pamphlet, Grimm Rules,  is forthcoming from Three Drops Press.

Despite becoming ambulatory disabled in 2021, as the result of a serious fracture, Angela continues to work as a freelance poet offering readings workshops.