About
“compelling . . . skilful” – Poetry Review
Ann Sansom is a poet, playwright, and tutor.
She has published six collections of poetry; had work published in several Forward/Faber anthologies, Russian Vogue, and a range of other publications; and has written and directed plays for stage and radio.
She has also worked with The British Film Institute on a series of commissioned film-related poems and written a screenplay for a series of short films.
Ann is currently a regular tutor for the WEA, the Poetry Society, and the Arvon Foundation and has taught at Oxford, Leeds, and Sheffield Hallam universities. She regularly works in schools and tutors writing residentials, teaching children of all ages and abilities, and she ran a weekly writers' workshop at Doncaster YWCA for 30 years.
Ann is also a director of The Poetry Business, which publishes The North magazine and Smith/Doorstop books.
Literary Awards
• 2003 – Author’s Foundation Award from the Society of Authors
• 1998 – Arts Council Literature Award
• 1994 – YHA bursary for Irish poetry translation
It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago
"It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago. We've a full tank of gas and half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses." "Hit it." – The Blues Brothers
Tomorrow you'll sit back and contemplate this spread of drizzling fields.
Not now, not you; your hat well down, your pallid elbow at the window
of a pale green Buick on a freeway in the 60s.
And not this viaduct dear god and not this catalogue of sheds and barns,
the earnest cyclist in the mac, that harmless roaming dog. Not here
above a place you never thought to love and don't quite hate enough.
You'd sooner wake unshaven to a different day; a slow train west,
a festive smokers only carriage loaded up with crates. Hard luck.
You own this battered face, the passengers who wince from your O Christ.
Collect yourself. Somewhere you fell asleep, backed in. This train
is ready to set out again to where you've been. It's almost dusk.
Step down. Above you there's a blurred board ticking off
the twenty-four hour clock, a Wakefield afternoon.
A fast train eases in. It's yours. You could get on.
Voice
Call, by all means, but just once
don’t use the broken heart again voice;
the I’m sick to death of life and women
and romance voice but with a little help
I’ll try to struggle on voice
Spare me the promise and the curse
voice, the ansafoney Call me, please
when you get in voice, the nobody knows
the trouble I’ve seen voice; the I’d value
your advice voice.
I want the how it was voice;
the call me irresponsible but aren’t I nice voice;
the such a bastard but I warn them in advance voice.
The We all have weaknesses
and mine is being wicked voice
the life’s short and wasting time’s
the only vice voice, the stay in touch,
but out of reach voice. I want to hear
the things it’s better not to broach voice
the things it’s wiser not to voice voice.
From Romance (1994)
(Reproduced in the first issue of Russian
Vogue 1999)
Reviews
In Praise of Men…
(Bloodaxe 2003)
"This is the writer’s ingenuity... : each part of the narrative is correlative, none is objective, and the balance between them reveals an improvisation that is both physical and emotional … this compelling volume of conflicting advice, conflicting loyalties, and skilful ventriloquy ends unambiguously on Sansom’s own voice: momentarily, something solid, perhaps." – Poetry Review
"Ann Sansom's new collection is a welcome return for a quietly authoritative, resiliently gritty poet whose debut collection. Romance, won her many admirers. These are poems that overturn readers' expectations. They often present human dramas in which people are seen as acting out their versions of themselves in their own fictions. They are set in curiously deracinated urban landscapes, homing in on chance encounters and missed connections, and balanced by a brisk authenticity and affectionate generosity." – TLS, Neil Powell
"Much of the best poetry in any age starts off with the local and then moves beyond it to the wider application of what is seen and experienced. Ann Sansom does that widening with skill and imagination." – Ambit 175, Jim Burns
"The disparate poems in the collection capture the poignancy of the everyday, with a quiet and measured voice, that is the more powerful for its restraint." – Dazed and Confused
"She’s brill." – Artscene, Vic Allen
Opening the Ice
(Smith|Doorstop 1990)
"A clear sense of narrative illuminated by accurate observation … with a sharp edge of personal involvement, of love and love lost that gives her poems an intimate feel. Warm, direct and delicately phrased." – David Harmer
Romance
(Bloodaxe 1994)
"Ann Sansom’s naturally accomplished and instinctively organised poems come as a breath of fresh air … There is a maturity to her work, a sureness of hand associated with only the most established poets, but there is a freshness too, and a bareknuckle confidence that seems to sing of the author’s realisation of poetry as a first language and a mother tongue." – Simon Armitage
"Ann Sansom has found her territory and speaks from it with eloquence and power." – Helen Dunmore
"An authentic Northern mix of realism and imagination [that demonstrates] her eye for detail, the pure phrasing of a largely unfigurative language and the range of her imagination." – Stanley Cook
Publications & Performance
Writing Workshops
Ann has led writing workshops in schools, in hospitals, in prisons, in art galleries, and on trains. She has worked with singing groups, artists, and travellers – and with primary school children, people in their 90s, and every age group in between. More than anything, she enjoys working with beginning writers and watching them grow in confidence and ability.
The Poetry Society
Ann has been a regular tutor for the Poetry Society for 20 years, and is a tutor for the Poetry Society’s masterclass, poetryclass, where she works with teachers to improve the teaching of creative writing in schools and universities. She established a flagship project at Exeter University, working with newly qualified teachers and their mentors to encourage and enable teachers of creative writing.
Ann's analysis of this residency is included in the Poetry Society’s online teaching resource, 'Poetry Class' and used as a model for poetry tutoring. The resource is intended for use by teachers and PGCE students to inspire an interest in poetry in their younger pupils.
Ann also taught the ‘Poetry Places: Heartbeat’ songwriting group in 2000.
Arvon Foundation
Ann is a regular tutor for the Arvon Foundation and has run courses in all four centres over the last eighteen years. She has worked with a variety of other tutors, and attended as a guest reader on numerous occasions.
Ann has taught school groups and open courses, working with students of all ages and levels of ability.
Schools
Ann has led workshops in hundreds of schools over the last 30 years. She taught in schools in collaboration with the Aldeburgh Poetry Trust in 1994, 1995, 1998 and 2000, and in Bedford schools with the Poetry Society in 1999. She also worked in Birmingham schools in 2002 in collaboration with the Jubilee Trust.
Ann co-tutored 'The School Train Project' in 1998, 1999 and 2001, taking classes of school children on train journeys and leading workshops along the way. The finished poems were co-edited by Ann and published in a small press anthology.
Ann worked with the sculptor Victoria Brailsford during 2000-01 as part of the Year of the Artist residency with Sheffield ‘Off the Shelf’ Festival. The project involved working with school students in Glen Howe Park (a sculpture park) and writing poetry inspired by the grounds.
In 2006, Ann taught staff and students at Lambra High School, Punjab, India, as part of the Manchester Literary Festival. The finished poems have been published in a special text messaging service, Anywhereblogs.
Universities
Ann has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Oxford since 2002, and has taught and given occasional readings and talks at the Leeds University School of Education since 1992. Ann has also taught at The University of Exeter and supervised poetry and short story undergraduates at Sheffield Hallam University.
The Workers' Educational Association (WEA)
Ann was the Doncaster Women's Centre librarian for many years, and ran a weekly writers' workshop there between 1988 and 2018. The group was WEA-funded and published three anthologies, edited by Ann.
Prisons
As part of the 2002 CityPoems project, Ann held workshops in Leeds for hearing-impaired students at Allerton Grange, staff and men at HMP Armley, members of Burmantofts Senior Action and staff at First Direct and the city art gallery.
The finished poems formed a 'biography of the city' and were presented at various 'Poetry Points' around Leeds city centre and made accessible to the public by text message.
Other
Ann led a weekly writers' workshop in the Huddersfield City Library between 1991 and 1995 as a part of Kirklees Community Writing Programme. She also held workshops in Derbyshire libraries, hospitals and residential homes during October 1999 (in collaboration with the Poetry Society) and in Bury Museum & Art Gallery in June 2000.
During 2002, Ann tutored a weekly writers' workshop for women in Sheffield Women’s Cultural Club.
Get in Touch
Ann is available for readings, workshops, tutoring (all age groups), and arts consultancy. She is based in Sheffield and regularly hosts online workshops.
Most of her back catalogue is available from Bloodaxe and Amazon.
To make a booking, email ann@annsansom.co.uk or use the form opposite. You can also contact Ann via The Poetry Business.
