Contact Details

Tel: +44 (0) 1243 816186
Email: h.dunkerley@chi.ac.uk

I came to Chichester in 1989, after doing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster. Since then I have taught on a variety of courses, both creative and critical. At the moment I teach on second and third year undergraduate courses as well as contributing to the MA in Creative Writing. I also run a third year option entitled Reinventing Nature: Contemporary Poetry and the Environment, which looks at the growing area of ecocriticism. Ecocriticism is the study of representations of nature in literature, and is based on the assumption that we live and write in a more-than-human world. I first became interested in environmentalism when I worked in conservation in the mid nineteen-eighties and am now trying to get the outdoors into the classroom. I am keen to work with postgraduate students who have an interest in ecocriticism.

My teaching reflects my research interests. My chapbook of poetry, Walking to the Fire Tower (Redbeck Press), came out in 1997. A second collection, Fast (Pighog Press) was published in 2007. A full collection entitled Hare was published by Cinnamon Press in 2010. In addition to this, I also write articles on contemporary poetry as well as reviewing for various magazines such as The London Magazine and Envoi. In 2002 I spent three months at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada working on a new collection of poetry.

With Dave Swann, I run a monthly cabaret for local writers and musicians entitled 'Tongues and Strings'. This is aimed at promoting local talent. We have published two anthologies of work by writers from T&S, the most recent being Dreaming Beasts (Krebs and Snopes).

In 2004 I organised a major international conference entitled Cross Fertilisations: Literature, Science and Nature. This was the third biennial conference of the UK section of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and took place at the University of Chichester between July 16th and 18th.

Since 2000 I have been the West Sussex Poet Laureate.

A Selection of Recent Publications

Creative

2010 Hare, Poetry Collection (Cinnamon Press)

2007 A selection of work published in Oxford Poets 2007 (Caracanet)

2007 Fast, Poetry Collection (Pighog Press)

Critical

2008 Co-editor of 'Earthographies: Ecocriticism and Culture' (New Formations)

2001 'Romanticism: Do We Need It?' (Green Letters, Autumn, 2001).

2001 'Unnatural Relations? Language and Nature in the Poetry of Mark Doty and Les Murray' (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Winter 2001).

Prizes and Awards

2009 Arts Council Award to fund the completion of a poetry collection

2002 Leighton Studio Residency, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.

2002 Prize-winner in the BBC Wildlife Poet of the year Award.

2001 Prize-winner in the BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year Award.

1999 Hawthornden Fellowship.

1996 Prize-winner in the BBC Wildlife Poet of the year Award.

1992 Eric Gregory Award Winner.