For our twenty third publication we are thrilled to announce a very special collaboration with Leeds Church Institute. Reflections: A Poet-Theologian in Lockdown Leeds features a collection of stories, observations and poetry by Leeds based author, Hannah Stone.
The project began in Spring 2020 as England entered the first lockdown. Hannah was appointed Poet-Theologian at Leeds Church Institute. Hannah’s brief was to comment on the impact of lockdown on the communities of Leeds, using poetry as a medium for reflection.
Initially presented as an interactive blog, Reflections: A Poet-Theologian in Lockdown Leeds is a collection of those blogs written during the most extraordinary year that we could ever have imagined.
Featuring contributions from Jane de Gay, Nick Allen, Amir Darwish, Brian Bilston, Carolyn O’Connell, and more, the book is both a celebratory and, at times, poignant vignette of lives lived through a pandemic.
The book will be distributed through Leeds Church Institute with a very limited number available through our on-line store.
Scheduled to be officially launched at the Leeds Literature Festival on the 05 March 2021 with an on-line event. Full details here: Reflections: A poet-theologian in Lockdown Leeds with Hannah Stone (leedslitfest.co.uk)
You can find out more about Leeds Church Institute here: Leeds Church Institute | Learning and Conferencing Centre (lcileeds.org)
About the author:
Hannah Stone was born in London and moved to Leeds over 30 years ago. She holds a BA in English Literature and Language (University of London), an MA and PhD in Theology (University of Leeds), and an MA in Creative Writing (Leeds Trinity University). As Hannah Hunt she enjoyed an academic career at Leeds Trinity University, where she was Reader in Eastern Christianity. She has been extensively published in her specialist fields of Patristics, early Christian spirituality and the Byzantine Church (including two monographs) and travelled globally to deliver conference papers. In addition, she is an Associate Lecturer and Honorary Research Associate for the Open University, tutoring both English Literature and Religious Studies.
An MA in Creative Writing completed in 2015 propelled her into a new focus on writing, editing and facilitating poetry. Since then she has published four volumes of her own poetry, as noted above in acknowledgments; three major collaborations, An After Dinner’s Sleep (with Gill Lambert and Maria Preston, Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2015, which was the inaugural volume in the Wordspace Imprint she established to publish creative writing associated with Leeds Trinity University); Holding Up Half The Sky (with Rosemary Mitchell, Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2019); and, during lockdown, Fit to Bust (with Pamela Scobie, Runcible Spoon Press, 2020). She has also been published in many print and online journals. She comperes the monthly ‘Wordspace’ Open Mic; curates the monthly ‘Nowt But Verse’ discussions for the Leeds Library, and convenes the ‘Poets-Composers Forum’ for Leeds Lieder Festival. In July 2020 she became editor of Dream Catcher literary journal, published by Stairwell Books in York. She has also worked in conjunction with Leeds University’s Electrifying Women project to edit several volumes of creative writing responding to the centenary in 2019 of the Women’s Engineering Society. She runs poetry workshops and participates in spoken word events. Hannah collaborates with visual artists and composers, most notably Matthew Oglesby with whom she wrote the Penthos Requiem in 2018 (see website at penthos.uk).
In other lives, she sings in two local choirs, walks in the Dales, grows her own fruit and vegetables, volunteers at a community farm, and fosters young hedgehogs.
Hannah was delighted to be appointed Poet-Theologian in Virtual Residence in the spring of 2020, with a brief to comment on the impact of Lockdown on the communities of Leeds, using poetry as a medium for reflection.
