Pat worked for twelve years in the theatre before becoming a writer. Primarily a poet, she has had seven collections published, most recently Kissing Bones, Unpredictable Geometry and Dreaming of Walls Repeating Themselves, all with Templar Poetry. She has won several major poetry competitions. Her short fiction has won awards and also appeared in journals and anthologies.
"Here is a poet of keen vision, remembering and analysing the past. Her language balances on the tightrope stretching between past and future...In this original and moving collection we see how this poet explores her 'geometries' of place and event with wit, delicacy of perception, and panache."
- Unpredictable Geometry - Penelope Shuttle
"A dark mischief runs through this collection of well-measured and finely-crafted poems."
- Dreaming of Walls Repeating Themselves - Linda France
"...a persistently surprising poem, precise in its imagery and gentle in the tenuous rhymes of its couplets. So many striking lines."
- 'The Contract' winner of the STANZA competition 2017 - Ros Barber
Pat is an experienced workshop facilitator. She has held writing residencies in HMP Long Lartin and North and South Manchester Hospitals. For the past four years she has been Creative Future's Literary Awards national workshop facilitator and she was also part of The Courtyard, Hereford's innovative 'Making of Me' project in OSJCT care homes for a couple of years.
Pat works regularly with Oxford Concert Party in schools, care homes and lunch clubs. She was one of a talented team of lead artists in their ambitious and influential project 'Waving Hello' in 2017. She also runs storytelling and story-making workshops at Newbury Corn Exchange's Memory Cafe.
Pat is comfortable working with people of all ages - the youngest person she has worked with has been 4 years old and the oldest, as far as she knows, has been 101. Pat especially enjoys inter-generational projects and multi-arts projects and she welcomes proposals from other artists.
She is comfortable working through interpreters and with people from a huge variety of backgrounds. Most recently Pat has been engaging with refugees and asylum seekers, offering a lively mix of poetry and storytelling sessions. Pat has a particular interest in working with people who find themselves shunted onto the margins of society. She also recognises that one doesn't always have to be literate in order to be a writer. Words were spoken long before they ever came to be written.
Poetry and /or Fiction Workshops. You can book Pat for half a day (one workshop) or for a whole day (two workshops). Workshops typically last 1 - 3 hours and will incorporate warm-up games and exercises plus one extended exercise and a read-around. Each workshop will be tailored to the needs of the group - which isn't to say it won't offer exciting challenges and the chance to try out something new.
Storytelling. These sessions are great for all ages and for a variety of events. Book Pat for your memory café or a festival, for weddings, baby namings, bonfire parties, school visits, lunch clubs...A session will typically run from one to three hours.
Pat is also available to run workshops to explore ways of researching and memorising stories.