Things I have kept

Denise Bennett has an MA in creative writing and is widely published in poetry journals and has been placed in many poetry competitions. She has three collections: Planting the Snow Queen and Parachute Silk by Oversteps Books and Water Chits by Indigo Dreams. She is a prize-winning poet being the winner of the Poetry Society’s inaugural Hamish Canham Prize. Most recently she won first prize in 2022 in the U3A (University of the Third Age), national poetry competition for her poem Jay and was awarded second prize in the Southport Writers Circle poetry competition in 2023 for her poem Water Muscles. She currently runs poetry and writing workshops in community settings, having taught creative writing for thirty years for Portsmouth College as part of their adult education programme. Much of her work is inspired by family events, local history, art work and nature. She has contributed many poems to The University of Portsmouth’s Literary Map, an online interactive map created to highlight Portsmouth’s impact on literature and inspire new writers. She always carries a notebook and pen to gather eaves-droppings and observations, the seeds for her poems.