Creatures of the Intertidal Zone by Susan Richardson
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Praise for Richardson’s poetry
Susan Richardson beautifully marries the landscape of the polar regions with their – and her own – emotional topography. I particularly admire her spirited recreation of Gudrid, that enchanting eleventh-century Viking heroine. ‘Creatures of the Intertidal Zone’ is a thought-provoking collection and very well worth reading.
Sara Wheeler
Here is poetry …driven from within into the shape best suited to its purpose. Internal rhyme and assonance, not obvious on the page, sing out when the poems are read aloud. This is free verse at its finest. …Poems in this collection fly without difficulty and I admire them from the ground, but a few of them of them landed especially heavily and I can still feel their impact on my heart.
Ann Drysdale
Susan Richardson is a poet, performer and educator based in Cardiff. Her collection of poetry, Creatures of the Intertidal Zone, was inspired by her journey, for which she received a Churchill Memorial Travel Fellowship, through Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland in the footsteps of an intrepid eleventh century female Viking, and one of the themes is the impact of environmental issues on the Arctic and sub-Arctic. She has also been published in numerous journals and anthologies including Horizon Review, Long Poem Magazine, Acumen and Poetry Wales.
Susan is one of the poets-in-residence on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live and was commissioned to write and perform poetry for BBC2’s coverage of the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show. She regularly performs her work at festivals and environmental events throughout the country: recent bookings include the Dark Mountain Festival, Runnymede International Festival of Literature, Leamington Peace Festival, Chester Literature Festival, Ludlow Green Festival and Petersfield Write Angle. Together with writer Siobhan Logan, Susan is also a founding member of the Polar Poets: they are currently performing Arctic-ulate, their multi-media show which interweaves poetry, storytelling, monologue and music, at both Theatre and Science Festivals.
Susan is also currently collaborating with a visual artist on a project which explores environmental and mythological themes relating to the Far North. A collection of their poetry and prints will be published by Cinnamon Press in 2011, while a joint exhibition is now touring galleries in Wales and beyond.