Heather Taylor

Biography

Heather Taylor is a Canadian poet, playwright & educator, who is a regular on the London poetry scene where she displays her natural ability to reach out to an audience. Her writing has been published throughout Europe & North America & she has been a host on Resonance FM & Sound Radio with guest slots on CKUA (Edmonton), CKUF (Victoria) & BBC London Radio. Her full collection horizon & back was published in 2005. She studied music, acting and writing in western Canada where she first began performing with Mirror Theatre, a group that co-created and toured social theatre pieces for youth. After working on over 30 film and theatre productions both onstage and off, Heather began performing her own solo work in Vancouver and co-produced the multimedia showcase Skidrow Theatre with Silent Productions. Her writing has led her to claim a first place poetry prize with Speak Out and a top-ten position in the Praxis Screenwriting Competition with her full-length screenplay "Two Fists." In January 2002, Heather pulled up stakes and moved to London, England. Since arriving in the UK, she has been a featured performer at Borders, Poetry Café, Ladyfest Amsterdam, and at the Spitz with Writers on the Storm. She has also performed at Brave New Word, Backroom Vodka Bar, Backstage Lounge, Aromapoetry and Walking the Dog. Her writing has been included in Nthposition, Chantileer, Gabriel, Rising, Unpublished, the Wolf, x-magazine, BareBonesMagazine, and NewVerseNews (poetry); Spoiled Ink, Tell-Tales, McSweeneys (prose); Chic Chat, Sable Literary Magazine, UK Theatre Network, Ultra-fit, x-magazine, The 341, Argosy, Blue and White, Langara Press, MOZ, The Peak, and Youthone.com (articles). Her first full poetry collection ‘Horizon & Back’ is available from www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk. For details on Practicum Theatre and their upcoming shows, see www.practicumtheatre.com. For general information on what she does and to see samples of her work, please go to www.heathertaylor.co.uk. What people are saying about her: Heather Taylor maps an image-rich world with a voice that is fresh, tough & hard to ignore. This is strong, brazen writing that lives on & off the page -Todd Swift Edgy, sophisticated wordsmith, feeding the mind as well as the heart. -Kindred Spirit A glint-in-your eye-crack-me-up in the vein of Jan Arden meets Joni Mitchell -John Stiles, Writers on Writing Heather Taylor's poetry is witty, gentle and generous with a sleek sensual edge that hides a wicked tongue. -poetry&words, Glastonbury Festival She writes with precision and economy. This isn't hard. But she also manages to add humanity to the mix which is, I think, very hard indeed… [her work] is humble and reassuring, gentle and generous ... -Patrick Neate, Whitbread Award winning author of 12 Bar Blues Injecting emotion into a piece well is rare and hard to accomplish. She does it well! -Laurie O'Hare Poetry with a sleek sensual edge that hides razor sharp wit. -Shortfuse Disturbing…Taylor has the ability to reach deep and connect with the audience. -Andrew Hinkle, The Peak Currently Heather is touring the 2-woman poetry and music show, Accents on Words. Accents on Words is a two woman show featuring Aoife Mannix & Heather Taylor, containing a unique blend of poetry & music served up by two extraordinary voices. It will challenge emotions & help you laugh at the pain of being subsumed into so many different worlds at once. It’s a lyrical journey through the wilderness of Canada, the glittering lights of New York, the smooth creaminess of Dublin & the chameleon mix of identities which are our cities today. Like tuning into radio waves, the sound of our voices contains the many echoes of where we come from. In the 21st century, in a time when we have become global travelers, most of us have more than one accent haunting our past. These accents are our labels, our broken love affairs, our history. It was launched at the poetry café in London in November 05 and has since been performed at a number of venues, including The British Library with BBC Radio London, BAC with Apples and Snakes, The Aran Islands (Ireland) and will be taken to India with the British Council in February 2007. "Mannix and Taylor’s repertoire is aurally gorgeous; their voices perfectly matched as they inter-splice their respective poetry. Visually it’s arresting too; sometimes it’s formal and dramatic, with fragments of verse spoken in syncopation and graceful, choreographed movement. Other times it’s like having your two big sisters having a comfortable conversation, maybe even winding each other up a bit. They bounce words and ideas off each other incessantly, a fabulous repartee of wisecracks that leavens the underlying pathos of memory and loss that many of the poems tonight have dealt with. " -Sean Merrigan, Spoiled Ink Venues Heather has performed at include: Amsterdam: Ladyfest Amsterdam Bournemouth: Off Centre Tour Birmingham: MAC Brighton: The South, Duke of Yorks Cinema Bristol: Ladyfest Bristol, Aromili Calgary, Alberta: Boardwalk Writers Edmonton, Alberta: Backroom Vodka Bar, CKUA 104.9 FM:Grapefruit Moon Egham: Runnymede International Literature Festival Glastonbury Festival Inish Orr, Ireland: Aran Islands Arts Centre London (selection): 291 Gallery, Aromapoetry, BAC, BBC London Radio, Book Slam @ Cherry Jam, Borders Charing Cross, Borders Islington, Brave New Word, British Library, Cellar, Diversity, Dodo Modern Poets, Express Excess, Farrago Poetry, The Foundry, Guardian Newsroom, Harrow Festival, Human Zoo, Kerouac's, Kindred Spirit, The Klinker, Lauderdale House, Monsters Eat Themselves, New Blood, Oh Art!, Poetry Cafe, RADA, Resonance 104.4: SaltPetre Radio show, Royal Commonwealth Society, ShortFuse, SOAS, Soundings at the Central Club, Speakeasy, Spoken Soul, Stark Gallery, Sweet n’Sour, The Tabernacle, Vibe Bar, Walking the Dog, Womenspeak (with SpitLit Festival), Writers on the Storm (with Apples and Snakes) Manchester: Ladyfest Manchester Vancouver: Backstage Lounge, Bukowski’s, Cafe Deux Soleil, Café Montmontre Victoria, BC: JBI, CKUV: Rock and Roll Breakfast Show Publications include: -automatic lighthouse, thetall-lighthouse, 2006 (anthology) -Handmade Fire, Mouthmark, 2006 (anthology) -Dance the Guns to Silence, Waterways, 2005 (anthology) -The Moosehead Anthology X: Future Welcome, DC Books, 2005 (anthology) -Horizon & Back, thetall-lighthouse, October 2005 (full poetry collection) -Wordplay 2, Islington Music Forum, 2005 (anthology) -Audition Arsenal: 101 Monologues by Type, 2 Minutes and Under, for Women in their 20s, Smith and Kraus, Inc., Autumn 2005 (theatre anthology) -Teen Angst Poetry, St. Martins Press, 2005 (anthology) -thetall-lighthouse poetry review, thetall-lighthouse, 2005 (anthology) -In the Criminal’s Cabinet, nthposition press, 2004 (anthology) -words from the lighthouse, thetall-lighthouse, 2004 (booklet anthology) -She Never Talks of Strangers, thetall-lighthouse, 2003 (collection) CDs include: Life lines, Oxfam Poetry CD, 2006 Worldplay 2, Islington Music Forum, 2005 voices from the lighthouse, thetall-lighthouse, 2004 29 Poets, 2004

Samples

From her first collection, Horizon & Back, and Accents on Words: Mom She talks to siblings, scolds daughter/son invites whispers of can we talk? That hush reminds me of the 10 year old confidant I was, a buoy in the isolation of divorcee, grown up with the speed of Soak N’ Grow Sponges, stretch marks wet silver on my hips reflecting the ones in my head. They scratched like my cat at the screen door, snagged holes in the mesh of boy meets girl now makes the navigation of warm sheets to icing flowers perilous, a tight rope feat rarely attempted. Her neuroses are embedded like piercings on my face, her words a permanent tattoo record on my skin, my building blocks are no longer square ABC towers but twirling DNA strands, those complexities of the world of science that found their way into personal interaction, like a mosquito in amber captured, holding a piece of me.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.