Jean Atkin

Jean Atkin’s third full collection ‘High Nowhere’ was published by IDP in late 2023. Previous publications include ‘How Time is in Fields’ (IDP), ‘The Bicycles of Ice and Salt’ (IDP), ‘Fan-peckled’ (Fair Acre Press) and 'Not Lost Since Last Time' (Oversteps). Jean's poetry has won competitions, been commissioned, anthologised, and featured on BBC Radio 4. She has been BBC National Poetry Day Poet for Shropshire and Troubadour of the Hills for Ledbury Poetry Festival. She has worked as a poet in education and community in both England and Scotland since 2010.

'High Nowhere' is a collection that commands attention. I’ve enjoyed rich description, honest fury, chilling insight and the sheer pleasure of reading a carefully constructed collection. Like the Icelandic landscape at the heart of it High Nowhere is a collection ever in flux bringing new insight and ideas with each reading. It’s a collection to read and revisit as it mirrors the ever-changing environment and the things the earth can tell us.

Kathryn Anna Marshall, reviewing 'High Nowhere'

‘Atkin is one of the most original and rewarding poets that we have in the literary landscape at the moment.’

R V Bailey

Jean Atkin also wrote 'The Crow House', a timeslip novel for 9+. 'The Crow House' is set in Scotland's Book Town, Wigtown in Galloway. There are wide streets and Georgian bookshops. A girl leads a pony through a snowy graveyard; a villain in a cold room scratches on parchment with a black quill; a boy in a bookshop opens a door that leads him straight into a pine forest that shouldn't be there...