NTU English Academic Dr Rebecca Cullen launches collaborative poetry project with Nottingham City of Literature

Dr Cullen has been awarded funding for a research fellowship, which will be carried out in partnership with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature

English research fellow, lecturer and poet Dr Rebecca Cullen has this year begun a Research Fellowship funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Midlands4Cities doctoral training partnership. The project, named ‘Poetry Pulse’, will be carried out in partnership with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.

Poetry Pulse is a ten-month project looking at how the lively poetry scene in Nottingham can be harnessed through digital technology. The project aims to introduce the vibrancy of Nottingham’s poetry to new audiences, in the hope of inspiring new writers to get involved. With over 1,000 poets in Nottingham and audiences of 6,000 people a month attending regular poetry events, writing groups, reading groups and poetry festivals, the appetite for poetry in Nottingham is steadily growing.

Rebecca is planning to research digital technologies, deciding how to best film or stream poems and poets, as well as look into the potential to curate work in a digital storage hub. The team hope to capture the fantastic poetry of Nottingham and make it easily accessible for residents of the City, as well as poetry enthusiasts around the country.

The collaboration with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature will allow the project to reach a wider variety of people. With UNESCO Cities of Literature comprising 26 million people, 130 literature festivals and 1,250 libraries, a digital poetry hub has the potential to connect poets from all over the world.

Dr Rebecca Cullen is leading on the project, with a wealth of experience in poetry. She regularly hosts the Totally Wired poetry night at Wired Café bar and recently won the 2018 Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet competition. Nottingham Trent University’s Professor Phil Leonard is the Academic Lead, with Nottingham City of Literature Director Sandy Mahal acting as the Partnership Lead.