Helena Nelson is the originator editor of HappenStance Press. She also writes poetry. 
Her own published work began with a pamphlet, Mr and Mrs Philpott on Holiday at Aucherawe & Other Poems, Kettillonia Press, 2001. Her first book, Starlight on Water, followed in 2003 from Rialto Press and was an Aldeburgh/Jerwood First Collection Prize winner.
She writes both serious and light verse. Unsuitable Poems (2005),The Unread Squirrel (2009) and Down With Poetry! (2016) represent her humorous and satirical side. She has performed widely, often provoking mirth, and set up HappenStance Press in 2005.
A former teacher in further education, she sometimes works as an Arvon tutor. She also publishes pamphlets (mainly first collections), and occasional book-length volumes, including first collections for D.A. Prince, Stephen Payne and Charlotte Gann.
She reviews for a range of magazines as well as posting a regular blog entry on the HappenStance website about poetry publishing, among other topics.
An associated activity is sphinx review.co.uk, a site dedicated to promoting and reviewing poetry pamphlet publishing. Here the idea of the OPOI is flourishing: short reviews of poetry pamphlets focussing on only One Point Of Interest (the OPOI).
In 2016, she published a HappenStance best seller: How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published, a book that collects the insights and useful ideas she has gathered over the last twelve years in poetry publishing. Down With Poetry! (published in the same year) is in many ways a light verse companion to How (Not) to...
Poetry:
- Plot and Counterplot, Shoestring Press, 2010
- Starlight on Water, Rialto Press, (2003)
- Mr and Mrs Philpott on Holiday at Auchterawe & Other Poems, Kettillonia Press (2001)
Light Verse:
- The Unread Squirrel, (More Unsuitable Poems) HappenStance (2010)
- Unsuitable Poems, HappenStance, (2005) (sorry, sold out)
- Down With Poetry!, HappenStance (2016)
Prose:
How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published, HappenStance (2016)
Links
Helena Nelson, Scottish Book Trust bio.
Interview with Tim Love, Litrefs blog, 2010.
Interview with Dr Fulminare (Sidekick Books)
Online interview, Poetry School, June 2015
Online interview, Scottish Books, April 2015
Online interview with Helena Nelson at Dundee University, 2015
Interview with Maitreyabandu at launch of two new pamphlets 2015