About Maggie Sawkins

I spent my childhood in Leigh Park, a large council housing estate north of Portsmouth, and began writing poetry after being inspired by my head teacher at Riders Junior School. My first poems were published in Hampshire Poets when I was seventeen. After a series of office jobs, including three years with The Exeter Flying Post, I returned to education and went on to gain an MA with distinction in Creative Writing. I teach students with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and Aspergers Syndrome at South Downs College near Portsmouth. I'm a professional member of the National Association of Writers in Education and facilitate creative writing workshops in community and healthcare settings.

Flarestack published Charcot's Pet in 2003 The Zig Zag Woman is my first full collection. My poems have been translated into Romanian and German and broadcast on Romanian National Radio.

You can hear me reading on this website:
www.fishousepoems.org/archives

See interview with Dee Rimbaud here.

“A distinctive and beguiling voice … heart-breakingly moving”
- Vicki Feaver.

“Brings to life what Ted Hughes calls ‘the goblin in the word’”
- Mark McGuinness (Magma).

“Echoes of Hughes, Plath, Feaver and Shapcott … vibrant, tearaway, peeling back, relentless, stripping to the bone … Passionate, unyielding. Great” - Katherine Gallagher.

“Faces the world head-on and shares her discomfort, humour and sadness, but does it with a slice of lemon” - Roz Goddard (Raw Edge)