Ah, the lovely Emily Hinshelwood. A fine, upstanding member of any community, I'm sure. With a surname that sounds like it's itching to be double-barrelled, but unlike Fortune-Wood (ie. Jan of Cinnamon Press), isn't. Emily has been a stalwart of the Welsh poetry scene for some years, particularly since she won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry in 2003. I was at that particular final, and I must admit, especially given some stiff competition, I thought she was a slightly surprising choice, until she read her poem "Bills and Moon" (featured right) as her finale piece, which impressed me enough to consider her a worthy winner!

 Emily put out her self-published book, "Sucking At Sticky Fingers" in 2004, which I would thoroughly recommend - a great mix of Emily's humour, honesty, and clever wordplay. In 2008, she won the Welsh Poetry Competition.

Emily enjoys reading at a variety of venues - "from IKEA to blustery coastal paths" it says here! Two years ago, I read alongside Emily at an academi-organised event at Stradey Park in Llanelli, shortly before it closed its doors. By now, Emily was mostly reading her more recent poems. These are generally more serious, with nature and the environment as a strong theme. Emily's next book, "On Becoming A Fish" will be released by Seren in 2012. They like to plan ahead at Seren, clearly! I mean, if Nostradamus is to be believed, the world might have ended before the book has even been published! Well, one way to gain notoriety, I suppose.

Emily is "just starting to dabble in animation as a backdrop to poetry performances...but that's taking time!" Well you have until 2012 to get it right, Emily, so I'm sure you can manage that! Excellent idea though -  livening up drab old poetry readings is definitely a good plan. I saw Felix Dennis use animated backgrounds, and whether or not you like his poetry, you have to agree that he puts on an entertaining show, and the visuals help with this.

Emily's current book is available from her website. To the right, you can read samples of her poetry.