Head and shoulders, full colour of the poet beaming happily. She is wearing dark glasses, maybe sunglasses, and has short greyish hair, a neatly pretty face, and a short dark necklace. Her blouse or top is blue and white floral design. Behind her a stone wall.

Helen Nicholson now lives in Fife. She grew up in and around Fort William, often helping out in her parents’ hotel, spending holidays with relations in Skye. After reading History at Cambridge, she lived for many years in London, working in HR, research and information and public affairs. She completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews in 2016.

These days she is a fundraiser for a Dundee-based charity for children and young people with speech, language and communication difficulties and is also a creative writing tutor on a University of St Andrews summer programme.

Helen is a trustee of Magma Poetry, of which she was a founder member.

Some of Helen’s poems celebrate her Scottish west coast background. Others draw on her earlier life experience as a child with a stammer. The stammer has allegedly left her, though not its memory.

She writes with intense sensitivity to language—the weight and width of each word, its enchantment, and its dangers.

Publications

Briar Mouth, HappenStance Press, 2018

Links

What did it for you (article in Magma)