Valerie Laws
Valerie Laws became world (in)famous for spray-painting poetry on sheep; she is always keen to break down the boundaries of science, art and literature, with works such as her commissioned computer-controlled electroluminescent poems on St Thomas' Hospital windows, London.
She won a 2006 Northern Writer's Award for her current project, in which she collaborates with conceptual artist Susan Aldworth and anatomical sculptor Eleanor Crook to create forensic pathology poetry. On 28th October 2006 the three were appointed to a joint residency at the Gordon Museum of Pathology which is not open to the public and is a teaching resource for Kings College London. She says: "I'm very excited about this opportunity, it's a real voyage of discovery for me, and a chance to work with two wonderful artists too. It's also a chance to show my work to the scientific community, and I hope to increase the medical students' engagement with the specimens, as I give the specimens a voice and tell their stories."
Valerie is a nation-wide performance poet, sometimes rude, sometimes pretending to be respectable. Her period as 2006 Ilkley Literature Festival Poet in Residence allowed her to devise some new events, which she would be happy to bring to other festivals in some form or other. Building on the invention of random 'Quantum Poetry', she led a world-first session of Poetry Bingo, in which the winner generated a random poem by getting a full house! Workshops with primary schools produced random poems with classes on relevant topics, the children acting as 'sheep' and in one case, a random swimming pool poem on inflatable beach balls and set in motion at the swimming pool by the children. Haikookies were another great success; Valerie wrote haiku which were folded and attached to cookies sold at the festival café throughout the festival. She led adult 'Celebwrite' workshops on poems of praise and celebration, did daytime readings of her poetry with groups of all ages and spontaneously in local shops: formal evening readings with Tony Harrison and Anthony Joseph, hosted open mic events/competitions, took part in a Mushaira, and acted as People's Laureate, writing poems for non-royals nominated by friends as having something special to celebrate: judged the young people's poetry competition, hosted other visiting poets' events, and many more activities.
Her latest collection is Quantum Sheep from Peterloo Poets, with whom she previously publishes her first solo collection Moonbathing. Her earlier publications, from Iron Press, are For Crying Out Loud (with Kitty Fitzgerald), Star Trek: The Poems, which she edited/compiled, and Hadaway: the making of a writer, one of her six commissioned/performed plays.
Valerie won a Northern Promise Award for her first crime novel, The Rotting Spot, which is currently with an agent.
She is disabled, a mathematician, a creative writing tutor, and a fanatical swimmer.
E-mail Valerie: .