Susan Richardson is a writer, performer and educator whose work of creative non-fiction, ‘Where the Seals Sing’ (William Collins), is a deep dive into the lives of Atlantic grey seals, blending natural history and travel, science and shamanism, memoir and myth. She has also written four collections of poetry, the most recent of which, ‘Words the Turtle Taught Me’ (Cinnamon Press), themed around endangered marine species, emerged from her residency with the Marine Conservation Society and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. Her first poetry collection, ‘Creatures of the Intertidal Zone’, was inspired by her journey, supported by a Churchill Fellowship, through Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland in the footsteps of an intrepid eleventh century female Viking.
Susan has been writer-in-residence with both the British Animal Studies Network, facilitated by the University of Strathclyde, and the global animal welfare initiative, World Animal Day. She also enjoyed a four-year stint as one of the poet-performers on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, and a season of writing and performing poetry for BBC Two’s coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show. She has had the opportunity to share her work at literary, environmental and science festivals throughout the UK and overseas, from Cheltenham to Adelaide, Toronto to Hay.
As an educator, Susan has over twenty years’ experience of devising and facilitating writing courses and workshops, from half-day sessions to week-long residentials. She has run workshops in universities, schools, retirement homes, hospices, on Welsh cliffs and Scottish mountains, as well as online. She particularly enjoys offering Wild Writing workshops for such organisations as the RSPB, the Wild and Well Festival, WWF and the Wildlife Trusts.
