In the News

Had a blast being part of last year's IAMinPrint Festival from 8th/12th June judging the Poetry Competition.

So excited to have interviewed the awesome Sutherland Bell on 10th October 2021 at 4 pm as part of Henley Literary Festival about their book 'The Green Man & the Raven's Quest'. More info about the event can be found here.

And more information about Sutherland Bell can be found here.

Was delighted to appear at the Lapidus Creative Bridges 21 Conference on 18th/19th September 2021 with 'That place at the heart of motherhood: poems from Yield'.

I was thrilled to be invited by The Poetry Place to read from 'Yield' on West Wilts Radio. You can listen in here (from 30 mins in). Also featured are the late and much-loved Graham Burchell,and fellow poet Rosie Jackson reading from their collection, 'TwoGirls and a Beehive' about the art and lives of Stanley Spencer and Hilda Carline, together with a stunning open mic.

Was honoured to have been asked to help judge Reading Amnesty International Group’s Poetry for Social Justice competition. More information here.

Loved being part of this celebration of new poetry from Two Rivers Press.

Delighted to be a Two Rivers Press Poet of the Week.

And thrilled to have supported Reading Culture Live's Digital Advent Calendar 2020 here

Honoured to have been part of Poetry in Aldeburgh 2019 with High Wire Act, 'Lolita Paints Her Toenails' & 'Long Story Short: Helen Dunmore's Lyric Gift'.

Had a brilliant time being part of 2018's Reading Fringe Festival along with Lesley Saunders and Susan Utting and also as one of the Stanza Shot poets in 2019.

Was delighted to be part of this reading on 16th April.

Am so grateful to Poetry Ireland for including my poem ‘Cinderella Backwards’ in their Poetry Day Poems on the DART campaign and what company I am in!

DART commuters can enjoy great Poetry Surprises-themed poems on poetry posters across the DART fleet for two weeks from 23 April 2018, thanks to the generous support of Iarnród Éireann. If you’ve already spotted one, read more about it in our handy guide here by editor and broadcaster Niall MacMonagle.

‘Here is a poem that tells a wonderfully happy-ever-after story backwards. And in this instance it’s heading in the wrong direction, it’s a journey towards unhappiness. Both John Glenday and Angela Carter, who are acknowledged here, have interrogated the fairytale and Glenday’s poem ‘A Fairy Tale’ reverses the tale of the Princess happily- ever-after waltzing through imagined ballrooms and he returns her to illness and waltzing the laundry. Claire Dyer’s Cinderella story poem also brings us back through familiar scenarios. The opening stanza paints a picture of a man not going down on one knee to place a glass slipper on the perfect foot. The very opposite occurs and the reader’s expectations are unsettled. That the sequence is all wrong is evident in the many ‘uns’ throughout: ‘unbends’, ‘uncurls’, ‘unprinted’, ‘unplanned’, ‘unchime’, ‘unsearch’, ‘untunes’. This reversed love story is, step-by-step, the story of lost happiness, lost possibility, a lost future, until we are left with a Prince somewhere/ who unbelieves in love again’. The dream is shattered and ‘unbelieves’ becomes the loneliest word in the poem. The Prince no longer dreams of meeting his Princess. Not to believe in love and its potential is a dark and bleak way of viewing the world. When Cinderella is back in the kitchen sweeping the floor and sweeping a fairytale’s opening words ‘back in through the door’ we are down to earth. The often-heard words Once Upon A Time contains a magical and happy future but Dyer in a wonderfully inventive word tells us that, just as Cinderella’s dress ‘re-rags’, everything is dull normal again. We can dream, can’t we? But they won’t always come true. And Dyer here suggests that even if they do, they can unravel.’

I was delighted to be the poet chosen to record the poem for Reading for National Poetry Day 2016 and this, below, is the result.  (Also available via this link.)

Super time talking to Bill Buckley & David Barker on BBC Radio Berkshire on 4/3/23 about our #RadioReads choice, 'The French House' by Jacquie Bloese and making our recommendations for next time. Looking forward to 'Three Men in a Boat' by Jerome K Jerome on 1/4/23 at 1.00 pm. You can listen in here to the latest show from 3 hours 10 mins in.

Koestler Awards
It’s been wonderful being part of the judging team for these awards in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

I am honoured to have work in Reading Writers’ latest anthology. This is available from Amazon, with profits going to the charity ABC to Read.

Recent Readings

• Desert Island Poets
• Stay at Home Lit Fest
• Winchester Muse 2021
• Teignmouth Poetry Festival
• Write Out Loud
• RNIB Book Group
• Hampshire Writers’ Society
• Long Story Short: Helen Dunmore’s Lyric Gift, Poetry in Aldeburgh
• High Wire Act: Lolita Paints Her Toenails, Poetry in Aldeburgh
• Wokingham Literary Society
• Reading Fringe Festival
• Symposium, Reading University
• Lumen Poetry
• Loose Muse, Winchester
• Wokingham U3A
• Writers at The Goods Shed
• Swindon Poetry Festival
• Reading Fringe Festival – Lolita Paints her Toenails
• Waterstones, Reading: An evening with Amanda Jennings & Claire Dyer – details HERE
• Bath Writers & Artists Group
• Henley Arts Trail
• Wokingham Library
• La Liberté d’Expression, Henley
• Launch of Reading University Creative Arts Anthology
• Poetry in Aldeburgh
• Reading Literature Festival
• Loose Muse, Winchester
• Words and Ears
• Loose Muse, London
• Albion Beatnik, Oxford
• Coffee House Poetry at The Troubadour, London
• Write Angle, Petersfield

Recent Judging, Editorials & Reviews

• IAMinPRINT Poetry Competition 2022
• Amnesty International Poetry for Social Justice 2021
• Koestler Awards 2019 Anthology Category
• Koestler Awards 2018 Anthology Category
• SWWJ – more details here
• Celebration, Friends of The Royal Marsden
• Slough Writers
• Koestler Awards 2017 Anthology Category
• The High Window
• South 52
• The Fat Damsel
• Koestler Awards 2016 Short Story & Flash Fiction
• Paragram Poetry Prize
• Berkshire Music & Arts