Lucy Atkinson

I am a north-east born writer currently completing my PhD in the Creative Writing department of Durham University. In 2019 I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA in English and Creative Writing before completing my MA at Durham in 2020 and going on to begin my PhD in the same year. While completing my MA I worked as a poetry editor on the Peninsula Anthology which was published in 2020. My PhD aims to produce a historical novel based around the events of the 1650 Newcastle witch trials as well as a literary study on British early-modern witchcraft in historical fiction.

My research interests are in historical fiction, the history of North-East England, depictions of early-modern England in fiction, depictions of witchcraft in fiction and early-modern superstition, folk-lore and folk-belief. My interests also include portrayals and cultural understandings of witchcraft, particularly as they relate to ideas of infanticide, nature, the female body and female power. My research and writing has a considerable focus on place and the landscapes, people and histories of the North-East.

My work has been published both online and in print. My award-winning debut short play As it Was was published in 2019. My Poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Ink, Sweat and Tears, Acumen, Agenda, Crossways Magazine, Neuro Logical magazine, Peninsula Anthology, Nymphs magazine, The Open Culture Collective and Green Ink Poetry.