Alumni

Nancy Campbell is a Scottish writer and book artist, described by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as “a deft, dangerous and dazzling poet writing from the furthest reaches of both history and climate change.” Campbell received the prestigious Ness Award from the Royal Geographical Society in 2020 for a decade-long creative response to the polar environment, including works of non-fiction (The Library of Ice), poetry (Disko Bay) and artist’s books (How to Say ‘I Love You’ in Greenlandic). Her work has been commissioned by arts and heritage organizations such as the Royal Academy of Arts, the British Library and World Book Night, and in 2018 she was appointed the UK’s Canal Laureate, a project managed by The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust. Many of the poems written during her two-year laureateship were installed along the waterways where they could be seen projected on wharves at night, stenciled on towpaths, or engraved into fish gates; they are collected in the pamphlet Navigations. Her latest book, Thunderstone, is a memoir of life after lockdown in an old Buccaneer caravan by the River Thames. Campbell has worked collaboratively with choreographers, composers, visual artists, bookbinders, anthropologists and neuroscientists and she is dedicated to developing innovative projects that push the boundaries of poetry. She has held numerous international research residencies, most recently as Visiting Professor of Literature at the Free University of Berlin.