e: katherineacrocker@gmail.com
w: http://katherinecrocker.co.uk/
Available to come to book groups? Yes
Available to give talks? Yes
Available for school visits? No
About Me
I started to write in 2002 and my first poem was published in 2004. The subjects I write about vary from personal poems about family and loved ones to political narratives, myth and fairy tales. I have been commended in various competitions; was runner up in the Writers Inc, writer-of-the-year 2007 and also runner up in the Templar Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2009; winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize in 2010; and short-listed for the inaugural Poetry School/ Pighog Press Pamphlet Prize in 2013.
My latest collection, Breathing Under Water, was published in 2017 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. Ten of the poems in this book were shortlisted for the Poetry School/PPP Competition. Many of the poems are linked by images which appear and disappear throughout the book and water links the poems together.
My first collection, Long Exposure at Cordoba, was published in 2012 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. The poems have themes about changing landscapes and seasons and include personal narratives as well as poems about myth and folk tales.
I am interested in the visual arts and work with Joseph Crocker, an illustrator, and David Crocker, a painter. They have done the illustrations for my books.
When not writing, I spend my time playing guitar, singing and tending to my small city garden in York. I also love to travel and take photographs. I had a photographic exhibition at the York City Screen gallery in 2010 entitled, “On the way to Timbuktu – a journey through Mali”, and I won the Explore Worldwide Travel Photograph Competition in 2012.
I have lived in York for a long time and though I like to travel to different parts of the world, I love coming home.
My books
Breathing Under Water
Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2017.
Genre: Poetry
Set in York? No
Reviews: ‘Katherine Crocker’s poems are founded in reality: the reality of the material – stone and water – and the reality of imaginative experience. What they show is how these two faces of reality come together to make art: that in fact this is what art is. The poems carry total conviction and compulsion.’ Bernard O’Donoghue
‘Katherine Crocker’s poems are intricately written, tender and moving. She observes the world with a keen eye. Each piece suggests a universe and narrative of its own. Read it in one sitting and be mesmerised. Then read it again.’ Abi Curtis
Buy from: Amazon
Long Exposure at Cordoba
Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2012.
Genre: Poetry
Set in York? No
Description: This collection contains poems about the changing seasons and changing landscapes. Some of the poems are set in rural Yorkshire and others further afield.
Reviews: ‘Katherine Crocker is not afraid to engage the reader in an enterprise that is in the best sense dramatic, and she does not disappoint. These are strong and incisive poems which derive their emotional traction from well-registered visual and tactile experience. A wide-ranging, distinctive, and extremely good first collection.’ Peter Bennet, Other Poetry & Bloodaxe
I greatly enjoyed reading this collection. It was very fine, and Lilacs, in particular, will stay with me.’ Peter Hobbs, Faber & Faber
‘This debut collection is never less than interesting and the best poems far exceed that. My favourites are about flowers. I love the poem about lilacs, the way their perfume drenches the air after the rain. Katherine Crocker brought them into my house, and here they are still.’ Helena Nelson, Ambit
Awards: Winner of Indigo Dreams Collection Competition.
Buy from: Amazon l Publisher’s website l Central Books
