Elizabeth-Jane Burnett (born 1980) is a poet and academic, and is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at
Newman University in Birmingham, Associate Professor at
Northumbria University, and a
Leverhulme Research Fellow for 2021-22.[1][2][3][4][5] She has described herself as an 'ecopoet'[6] who curates 'ecopoetic' exhibitions.[7] She is interested in
nature writing, as well as place and family heritage.[8]
Burnett was named in the 10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper
Wainwright Prize, for her book of poetry, nature-writing, and memoire, Twelve Words for Moss.[13]
Publications
Burnett has published two poetry collections with Penned in the Margins, 'Swims' and 'Of Sea'.[12] Both books are concerned with the environment and activism, and Burnett is interested in how 'poetry can raise consciousness by bringing the effects of climate change or pollution to life'.[1] 'Swims' documents experiences of wild swimming across the England and Wales,[14] was featured as a
Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year in 2017.[15][16]
Her poetry features in the anthologies Dear World and Everyone In It: New Poetry in the UK (Bloodaxe, 2013) and Out of Everywhere 2: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America and the UK (Reality Street, 2015). Wasafiri 106: the Water issue (2021), features three poems by Burnett.[4]
Her PhD thesis was published as A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities: The Gift, the Wager, and Poethics (2017) by Palgrave Macmillan.[17]
The Grassling, A Geological Memoir (2019) was a winner of the
Penguin Random House WriteNow award.[2]
She published 'Rivering', a pamphlet of poems, with Oystercatcher Press in 2019.[18]
In 2021, Burnett was commissioned by the
National Trust to create a poem responding to nature observations made by members of the public.[19]