Rising Star:
Heather Phillipson
How one young London poet came to verse via art
WORDS: ALEX RAYNER
HEATHER PHILLIPSON DOESN’T TELL PEOPLE SHE’S A POET. “If I’m asked what I do, I tend to say artist,” says Phillipson, 31, “but maybe that’s to do with the length of time I’ve been doing it.”
This may sound pretentious, but Phillipson studied art and her work is currently touring the UK as part of the prestigious Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition. Indeed, she only turned to poetry at the relatively late age of 28, having tried classical music, DJing and cinematography.
“I learnt the violin and the piano from a really young age,” says London-born Phillipson, “but then you hit your teenage years and you have other interests.”
Her parents moved from the capital to rural Pembrokeshire when Phillipson was 11. Abandoning her instruments a few years later, she took a Saturday job in a record shop and began DJing.
“I liked funky house and drum ‘n’ bass,” she recalls, “and used to play out in clubs locally. But I never had a proper DJ name or anything.”
Following her arts education, she’s won praise for both her visual art and her verse; Phillipson was awarded the Michael Donaghy Poetry Prize from Birkbeck College in 2007, won an Eric Gregory Award in 2008 and this year was chosen by publishers Faber & Faber as one of the three writers in their inaugural New Poets series.
Yet if that sounds all a bit too highbrow, don’t fear. Her poems are surprisingly accessible, and draw from such common experiences as getting a bad haircut or having a nice bath. “Though most of my poems contain a big dose of the imagination, usually they’ll be relevant at their base,” says Phillipson.
This month she’ll be taking part in a week-long reading tour with her fellow Faber New Poets, Fiona Benson, Toby Martinez de las Rivas and Jack Underwood.
“We’re doing something like seven cities in eight days, a bit rock and roll,” says Phillipson, citing one of the few artistic disciplines she hasn’t tried her hand at. Yet.
