Chrissie Gittins
Chrissie Gittins was born in Lancashire and lives in Forest Hill in South London. She studied at Newcastle University and St Martin’s School of Art, and worked as an artist and a teacher before becoming a freelance writer. She writes poetry, radio drama, short stories, and poetry for children.
Her adult poetry collections are Armature (Arc, 2003) and I'll Dress One Night As You (Salt, 2009). Her children’s poetry collections are Now You See Me, Now You... (Rabbit Hole, 2002) I Don’t Want an Avocado for an Uncle (Rabbit Hole, 2006), and The Humpback’s Wail (Rabbit Hole, 2010). Both her first two children’s collections were shortlisted for the CLPE Award and all three collections were Poetry Book Society ‘choices’ for the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf. Two of her children’s poems won Belmont Poetry Prizes in 2002. Her children’s poems have been animated for Cbeebies TV and are widely anthologized. Her poem ‘Death in the Poetry Library’ features on the Southbank Centre audio tour.
She has read her poetry at the Royal Festival Hall, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Keats House Hampstead, Oxford University, Newcastle University, the British Council Bangkok, the Poets House New York and the Edinburgh, Hay, Ilkley, Wigtown and Shetland Festivals.
In 2005 Chrissie was awarded an Arts Council Grant for the Arts to complete her short story collection. Family Connections was published in 2007 by Salt Publishing. She has read her stories at Manchester Central Library, at Newcastle and Salford Universities, the Poetry Society, Clitheroe Castle and on BBC Radio Four. Her radio plays, which include Starved for Love, Life Assurance and Dinner in the Iguanodon, have starred Patricia Routledge, Jan Ravens and Sorcha Cusack.
In 2010 Chrissie was Writer-in-Residence for the month of September on the Shetland Islands; she is currently Writer-in-Residence with the Borough of Lewisham. Chrissie has received a fellowship at Hawthornden Castle, and awards from the Society of Authors, the Royal Literary Fund, and The Author’s Foundation. She is included in the British Council Contemporary Writers database of the 600 writers 'regarded as the best of UK and Commonwealth writers'.
website: www.chrissiegittins.co.uk