Dr Ruth Stacey

Dr Ruth Stacey copy

Lecturer - Creative Writing

Institute of Arts and Humanities

English Media and Culture

Contact Details

email: r.stacey@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 855138

Dr Ruth Stacey is an expert in poetry, historical fiction, fantasy fiction, and memoir. Her research is focused on the use of symbolist poetics to write imagined memoir of historical subjects.

An award-winning poet, with a background in copywriting and illustration, her teaching covers a wide range of subjects including genre fiction, creative nonfiction, contemporary poetry, professional practice, and writing for children.

A passionate and inclusive teacher, Dr Stacey was awarded the Acting Provost Award 2022 for Excellence in Teaching, and the Student Choice Award for Module Excellence 2023 for her module 'Writing Witchcraft.'

Her forthcoming book, Feel Everything! An imagined memoir of Pamela Colman Smith will be published autumn 2024. Dr Stacey is based in MH2005 and is currently the admissions tutor for Creative Writing.

Qualifications

  • Current: PhD Creative Writing University of Northumbria
  • MA Literature: Politics and Identity University of Worcester
  • PTTLS Worcester College of Technology
  • BA Hons English Studies Bath Spa University

Teaching Interests

Ruth has taught a wide range of creative and literary modules, including Writing Poetry, Life Writing, Writing Fiction, Genre Fiction, Contemporary Poetry, Gothic Literature, New Nature Writing, Environmental Writing, Writing for Children, Career and Project. Ruth also supervises dissertations in Creative Writing.

Research Interests

Ruth Stacey’s current research is focused on symbolist poetics, memoir, text and image, and historical fiction.

Recent papers:

‘The nursing memoir: how to encourage creative expression in a scientific work space.’ Presenting with Sethu Sundari, CLiC: Collaborate –A Workshop on Creative-Critical Collaborations, University of Worcester, September 2021

‘The dalliance of allusion: intertextuality as sensual symbolist space in Cassandra Atherton's prose poetry.’ ‘CLiC: Play’ Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Worcester, March 2021

‘Talking Animals: The symbolist poetic space that is created when animal/human boundaries are crossed.’ Enchanted Environments Symposium, University of Worcester, March 2020

‘Decorative ambiguity: writing imagined memoir using symbolist poetic form.’  Prose Poetry Symposium, Leeds Trinity University, July 2019

‘Layering voices: using the prose poetry form and symbolist poetry techniques to write the imagined memoir of Pamela Colman Smith.’ Contemporary Women’s Poetry: Lines and Landscapes, April 2019

‘Washed Ashore in a New World: Using creative writing research to explore the dual identity of the sibling twins representing Elizabeth I in Twelfth Night.’ Siblings Symposium, University of Worcester September 2018.

‘Double Ventriloquism required in the construction of an imagined memoir.’ – Projectivisms Symposium, Cardiff University May 2018.

Recent Publications

I, Ursula,  V.Press Poetry, January 2020. ‘Stricken and painfully well-observed, Ruth Stacey’s new collection is replete with our magical excuses, boundless infatuations, loyalties and sanctuaries.’ Luke Kennard

Spoken Word in the UK, book chapter co-written with Sharon Clarke, published April 2021. ‘More Show, Less Tell: How do we talk about spoken word now that it is working on a theatre stage?’

Queen, Jewel, Mistress, Eyewear, July 2015. “Ruth Stacey’s poems are exceptional. They evoke voices long silenced, and the very essence of these past lives and the ages in which they were lived. There is so much food for thought here – every line is a joy!” Alison Weir

Inheritance, written with another poet, Katy Wareham Morris, this poetry sequence won the 2018  Saboteur Award for Best Collaborative Work. ‘Shuttling back and forth in time and between writers, the poetry offers personae who address the experiences of new mothers caring for infants, but the book gives more than that:   it explores larger questions of awareness that can—sometimes—bridge the gap between self and other.” Jayne Marek

With Knives, Forks & Spoons Press:

The Dark Room: Letters to Krista, a collaborative pamphlet with American Photographer Krista Kay that examines nostalgia and photography, April 2021. ‘The Dark Room offers a moving meditation on the relationships between memory, death, and the traces we leave in our wake.’ Alissa Bennett

Viola, the Virgin Queen  August 2020. A collaboration with illustrator  Desdemona McCannon, it examines Elizabeth I through the lens of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. This was also shortlisted for Best Collaborative Work in the 2020 Saboteur Awards. ‘It is accessible academic poetry. It has a sexual tension running through it, discussing bodies, blood and clothing as representing who one is and where one belongs.’ Sally Barrett

How to Wear Grunge, November 2018 and it was shortlisted for Best Pamphlet at the 2019 Saboteur Awards. ‘Stacey is a fearless and utterly compelling writer, whose candid, courageous poetry takes on the prevailing narrative and places women at the very epicentre.’  Jane Commane