"Urgent and deeply moving, Guinevere's poetry is written with powerful narrative and imagery that sparkles. This is poetry that not only needs to be read, but demands you sit up and listen." Natalie Ann Holborow.
Welcome to Guinevere Clark's poetry HQ, - sharing publications, project updates and sample poems. Guinevere is currently seeking the right publisher for her second full collection or first chapbook/pamphlet.
For information on Poetry Into Light - please click here.
Guinevere's first poetry collection, Fresh Fruit & Screams was published by the late Bluechrome Press (2006). She's more recently featured in: Minerva Rising (2018), The A3 Review (2019), Black Bough Poetry (2019), The Atlanta Reveiw (2020), Magma (2020), nawr Magazine (2020-21), Blackbox Manifold (2021), Culture Matters (2022) and Poetry Wales (2023). She was a finalist in the Ambit International Poetry Competition (2020) and received Shortlisted and Highly Commended Awards in the Hammond House International Literary Prize (2022) and the Wales Poetry Award (2022). Guinevere's pamphlet on sexuality and motherhood, King Mattress, was shortlisted in the Poetry London Pamphlet Competition (2023) and she was a finalist in the Cinnamon Press Literature Award (2023). She was longlisted in The Nature Chronicles Prize (2024) with her lyrical essay 'Old Red'.
Pushcart Poetry Prize nominations are from Black Bough Poetry and Minerva Rising. Her goal is to have a second collection contracted for publishing under the wing of the right publishing house by 2025.
Latest News, Reviews & Publications 2024-25
Guinevere has been awarded winner of the Hammond House Interntaional Literary Award with her poem 'Ma', a ballad of death, place and memory. She will go on to work alongside Hammond House as part of their International Literary Festival in Feb 2025.
2024 also saw her become a finalist in The Cinnamon Press Literature Award with a full collection, Gift of Venus, with this glowing review from Jan Fortune,
"In a collection that explores motherhood with a kaleidoscopic eye, Guinevere Clark constantly finds fresh perspectives. Inhabiting the borders between motherhood and the natural world, particularly through the edge-spaces of the coastline of south-west Wales, she delivers precise and surprising imagery in poems that are formally deft and linguistically dexterous. There are big themes at play here: questions of fertility and gender, of domestic abuse and the extremes of suffering and joy, but there is nothing didactic at work. Instead we are invited in to the experience at the heart of each piece. A deeply embodied and highly accomplished collection".
2025 will see new poems from Guinevere published in Cardiff's Lucent Dreaming and a US symposium presentation for the Society for Study of Pregnancy and Birth on the poetics of the 'third space of mothering', covering some of her PhD poetry and working creative writing model.
Background
Guinevere is a Grimsby born poet. She studied a BA in Creative Writing, Physical Theatre & Live Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating with a First Class Degree in Creative Arts (2001). For the last 23 years, South West Wales has been her base, where she's completed a Masters Degree in Creative Writing (2011) at The University of Wales Trinity St David and a Creative Writing PhD (2023) at Swansea University. In her PhD she produced a trio of chapbook/pamphlet sized collections and a thesis, 'The Egg in the Triangle: Poetics of Motherhood, Sexuality and Place'.
She's presented at The Welsh Studies Post Graduate Conference reading on 'The Psychogeography of The Mumbles' at Swansea University (2023), The Arts and Humanities Post Graduate Research Conference on 'Liminality Within Poetry on Motherhood' (2021) and The Postgraduate Research Festival - Creative Writing Showcase (2022). Her first femininst academic paper is in Demeter Press in the Wild with Child issue - 'Journeys into Liberation: Re-writing the Maternal 'I' in Poetry on Domestic Abuse' (2024). She currently holds a co-editing post at Demeter Press on the Celebrity Mothers issue and is researching ekphrastic poetry for an article on contemporary Chrstine Keeler artworks.
Guinevere has a passion for the benefits of creative writing in prison and secure settings and as part of her current Arts Management MA, studied organisational strategies to assist health and wellbeing through creative writing in the work of the UK's most prominent prison charity, Koestler Arts. She's currently undertaking the Creative Producing branch of the MA in Arts Management at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under a part-scholarship.
Creative and Community Poetry Projects & Poetry Into Light:
Guinevere has read for Cardiff's Lyrical Miracles and the Swansea Live Poets open mics and co-produces poetry nights for the Taliesin Arts Centre 2023-2024. She was a guest reader and judge for the Swansea & District Writer's Circle poetry competition in 2024 and co-produced Grand Ambition CIC's first community poetry night at Swansea Grand Theatre in 2024.
Create & Flourish (2024): Leading on script writing for the neuro divergent community in Swansea, alongside Elysium Gallery and Mioe Productions as part of a mixed arts ACW project.
Arts Care Charity (2023): offering creative writing workshops to the Ukranian community in Pembrokeshire's HaverHub in collaboration with Pembrokeshire Action for Voluntary Services.
Writer's Development Programme (2022-2023): leading a 9-month Books Council of Wales and MIND Cymru project for the BAME mental health support organisation -'BMHS'- inspiring and supporting participants to create poetry, novels, blogs, short stories and hybrid writing into publication.
Taliesin Community (2022-present): leading a series of poetry workshops and group anthology publications at The Taliesin Arts Centre.
Scandal '63 Revisited (2023): new comissioned poetry for a symposium on the evolving Dear Christine gallery arts project covering the sexual politics surroundng the life of Christine Keeler and the 'Profumo Affair' narrative.
Creative Writing Symposium for Nurses - Writing the Pandemic (2022): delivering creative writing workshops to a cohort of participant nurses exploring their clinical and personal perspectives during the Covid-19 pandemic with Professor Owen Sheers and Molly Case.
Mother's Ruin (2022-2023): poetry included in the feminist gallery exhibition on the destitution of motherood with her work being translated into German for the international leg of the show.
Dad's Ammonite's (2021): a film Poem Creative Fusion Lockdown Project with musician Stefanos Andreas.
Jaipur Festival (2020): reading at the British Library event via Swansea University's Cultural Institute.
Dear Christine (2019): touring feminist gallery exhibition, writing on the life and themes around 1960's icon, Christine Keeler, reading at London's ARTHOUSE1 and Swansea's Elysium gallery.
Poetry Wales (2019): Spells & Sanctums Poetry Reading.
Fusion Project (2019): Poetry workshops at The Dylan Thomas Centre and Taliesin Arts Centre, run through Swansea County Council.
Swansea Coast: My One and All project (2016): working alongside Professor Owen Sheers, tutoring, writing and performing on the theme of the Gower and the Swansea city-coast relationship in a National Trust and Swansea University Cultural Institute project.
Give me Wings & The Friday Project (2012-2014): delivering creative writing workshops for women with dance, art and music, run through the Arts Care Charity.
Currently, Guinevere is submittting chapbook/pamphlet and full-sized poetry collections to publishers. If you are interested in publishing her poetry, readings, workshops, inviting her to judge, creative collaborations or seeing more poetry samples, please contact Guinevere
Belly Dance
Guinevere's other passion is belly dance, which she has been practicing and teaching for over 25 years. In 2011, she wrote and co-produced The Belly Dancer's Treasure Pack, an illustrated guidance book and empowering card set with marketing support from The Bellydance Superstars. Her writing and work on belly dance has been included in Dancing in the UK, Nafoura and Take it Easy magazines, and on BBC Radio Wales, Radio Pembrokeshire and Radio Ceredigion. You can find out more on her dance classes and retreats here www.baubo.co.uk
