Writer in Residence

Chris lives in Newtown, her first two collections, Kung Fu Lullabies, and Cure for a Crooked Smile, are published by Ragged Raven Press and were well received by critics. She has also had poems for children and young people commissioned and published by Pont Books: Second Thoughts, Poems of Love and Longing and A Child’s Book of Poems. In 2008 she won the BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year competition.

Chris has also written dramas. A stage play, Feathering the Dark, was given a rehearsed reading at Aberystwyth Arts Centre as part of the 2009 Travelling Light Festival, mentored by Kaite O’Reilly. Her short film script, Legless was shortlisted by TAPs (Cymru) for TV production by It’s My Shout in 2008. A short script, I and I, was worked on by The National Theatre and presented at Venue Cymru in October 2010. Her digital story, Houndsplay is published on the BBC Wales website and was exhibited in Oriel Davies in 2007.

Chris writes a regular Nature Diary for Cambria and was runner-up in Natur Cymru’s Inspired by Nature competition in 2010. She has been dubbed Greyhounds' Poet Laureate. She also writes poetry reviews for Envoi, New Welsh Review and Planet.

Many of her poems spring from her work supporting adults with learning disabilities, teaching students who are excluded from school and teaching writing and Tai Chi in Mental Health Drop-in Centres, for Age Concern, and various community groups. Other poems and articles arise from living a long time in a small town and going out and about with her rescue greyhounds. Chris works regularly with Powys Young Writers’ Squads.

Chris’s third collection of poems, Swarf, will be published later on this year by Smokestack.

Chris Kinsey: CV

Chris Kinsey: Poems