Biography

Maggie lives in Southsea, Hampshire, where she hosts the Tongues & Grooves poetry and music club. She's read at numerous venues including The Troubadour, Poetry Cafes in London and Reading, Salisbury and Havant Arts Centres and the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth. She is the recipient of the 2013 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her multi-media live literature production, Zones of Avoidance. Her collections include 'The Zig Zag Woman' (Two Ravens Press 2007), 'Zones of Avoidance' (Cinnamon Press 2015). Maggie facilitates creative writing projects in community and health care settings.

Samples

AMERICAN WAKE At the boot-hollowed threshold seventeen miles from Skibbereen I listen for my grandfather's: by God I'll make you skip, boy, sing-song voice. At the farmhouse table where he might have planned his American dream, I trace the wood as if I could find the whorl of his fingerprints somewhere in the grain. Then in a tin box I see the photograph - his flock of children left to fend like babes in the wood. And the tales my mother told me, that once seemed as distant as another planet, flash the room - whiting her eyes like lightning on a star starved night. (from The Zig Zag Woman, Two Ravens Press) BRONZEFIELD Sounds like a place that once was torched by the breath of a god, but more likely it was built on a field of corn, this building with high red walls where you've finally been netted. My mutant butterfly, when I come to visit they search my mouth. (from The Zig Zag Woman) THE ART OF DETACHMENT So what if it's lonely? Now and again a shape will turn itself in from the darkness then close on its tail a name: comet, kite, kangaroo. Others will arrive without even a suitcase: guilt, joy, passion, shame. They are temporary guests to be sent packing into the arms of a story, to be cast away with a kiss. (from The Zig Zag Woman)

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

Blog entries by Maggie Sawkins

Radio Interview with Melanie Manchot (22/05/2016)

The World's Coat (03/04/2016)

A CAGE WENT IN SEARCH OF A BIRD (25/03/2016)

Zones of Avoidance (31/01/2016)

Zones of Avoidance (08/11/2014)

Tongues&Grooves at The Southsea Show (07/08/2013)

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/maggiesawkins

Audio entries by Maggie Sawkins

Radio Interview with Melanie Manchot (22/05/2016)

Tweets by @SawkinsMaggie