Ruth Stacey
Lecturer - Creative Writing
School of Humanities
English Media and Culture
email: r.stacey@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 855138
Ruth is based in Bredon 190. As Admissions Tutor for Creative Writing she is responsible for processing new applications for study and recruitment of new students. This includes attending open days, organising events, visiting schools and colleges, and collecting student testimonials for the Creative Writing blog.
A prize-winning writer, Ruth is interested in reclaiming maligned or forgotten voices in her work, combining historical research with imagined memoir to create a new document that allows a different perspective on the historical person. Ruth is currently writing symbolist poetry as part of her research for her PhD at the University of Northumbria. The creative aspect of the project is an imagined memoir of the tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith.
Ruth is widely published and has taught literature and writing to all age groups, including in schools and with Writing West Midlands youth groups. An experienced freelance writer and copywriter, Ruth also helped to start the indie press V.Press and worked as the illustrator for the press for seven years.
Qualifications
- Current: PhD Creative Writing University of Northumbria
- MA Literature: Politics and Identity University of Worcester
- PTTLS Worcester College of Technology
- BA hons English Studies Bath Spa University
Teaching & Research
Ruth Stacey’s current research is focused on symbolist poetics, memoir, text and image, and historical fiction.
Recent papers:
‘The nursing memoir: how to encourage creative expression in a scientific work space.’ Presenting with Sethu Sundari, CLiC: Collaborate –A Workshop on Creative-Critical Collaborations, University of Worcester, September 2021
‘The dalliance of allusion: intertextuality as sensual symbolist space in Cassandra Atherton's prose poetry.’ ‘CLiC: Play’ Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Worcester, March 2021
‘Talking Animals: The symbolist poetic space that is created when animal/human boundaries are crossed.’ Enchanted Environments Symposium, University of Worcester, March 2020
‘Decorative ambiguity: writing imagined memoir using symbolist poetic form.’ Prose Poetry Symposium, Leeds Trinity University, July 2019
‘Layering voices: using the prose poetry form and symbolist poetry techniques to write the imagined memoir of Pamela Colman Smith.’ Contemporary Women’s Poetry: Lines and Landscapes, April 2019
‘Washed Ashore in a New World: Using creative writing research to explore the dual identity of the sibling twins representing Elizabeth I in Twelfth Night.’ Siblings Symposium, University of Worcester September 2018.
‘Double Ventriloquism required in the construction of an imagined memoir.’ – Projectivisms Symposium, Cardiff University May 2018.
Ruth has taught a wide range of creative and literary modules, including Writing Poetry, Life Writing, Writing Fiction, Genre Fiction, Contemporary Poetry, Gothic Literature, New Nature Writing, Environmental Writing, Writing for Children, Career and Project. Ruth also supervises dissertations in Creative Writing.
Publications
I, Ursula, V.Press Poetry, January 2020. ‘Stricken and painfully well-observed, Ruth Stacey’s new collection is replete with our magical excuses, boundless infatuations, loyalties and sanctuaries.’ Luke Kennard
Spoken Word in the UK, book chapter co-written with Sharon Clarke, published April 2021. ‘More Show, Less Tell: How do we talk about spoken word now that it is working on a theatre stage?’
Queen, Jewel, Mistress, Eyewear, July 2015. “Ruth Stacey’s poems are exceptional. They evoke voices long silenced, and the very essence of these past lives and the ages in which they were lived. There is so much food for thought here – every line is a joy!” Alison Weir
Inheritance, written with another poet, Katy Wareham Morris, this poetry sequence won the 2018 Saboteur Award for Best Collaborative Work. ‘Shuttling back and forth in time and between writers, the poetry offers personae who address the experiences of new mothers caring for infants, but the book gives more than that: it explores larger questions of awareness that can—sometimes—bridge the gap between self and other.” Jayne Marek
With Knives, Forks & Spoons Press:
The Dark Room: Letters to Krista, a collaborative pamphlet with American Photographer Krista Kay that examines nostalgia and photography, April 2021. ‘The Dark Room offers a moving meditation on the relationships between memory, death, and the traces we leave in our wake.’ Alissa Bennett
Viola, the Virgin Queen August 2020. A collaboration with illustrator Desdemona McCannon, it examines Elizabeth I through the lens of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. This was also shortlisted for Best Collaborative Work in the 2020 Saboteur Awards. ‘It is accessible academic poetry. It has a sexual tension running through it, discussing bodies, blood and clothing as representing who one is and where one belongs.’ Sally Barrett
How to Wear Grunge, November 2018 and it was shortlisted for Best Pamphlet at the 2019 Saboteur Awards. ‘Stacey is a fearless and utterly compelling writer, whose candid, courageous poetry takes on the prevailing narrative and places women at the very epicentre.’ Jane Commane