CURRENT PROJECTS
Wild Women Writers' Salons - curating and hosting a year-long project focusing on memoir and creative non-fiction by women writers
2023-24 Writers' Alliance Group for Literature Alliance Scotland - selected
PUBLISHED NON-FICTION/MEMOIR
All My Wild Mothers - Two Roads Books (Hachette) 2023
Moving Mountains - Writing Nature though Illness and Disability - ed. Louise Kenward (Footnote Press 2023)
North Country - An anthology of landscape and nature - ed. Karen Lloyd (Saraband 2022)
Minecraft Life Hacks Lab for Kids - co-written with Adam Clarke Quarto (2019)
PUBLISHED POETRY
Butcher's Dog Magazine Issue #14
To Start the Year from its Quiet Centre - pamphlet, Indigo Dreams (2020)
The Bloody Amazing Anthology - Yaffle Press/Beautiful Dragons (2020)
The Mountain We Cannot See Anthology - Slice of the Moon (2020)
Imagining Life After COVID-19 - Womawords Literary Press
International Times (April 2020)
The Beach Hut (December 2019)
As Above, So Below Issue 1 (December 2018)
#MeToo - A Women’s Poetry Anthology - Fair Acre Press, 2018 (Saboteur Best Anthology Winner 2018)
The Golden B00k - Fifty Years of Arvon - Arvon Foundation (2018)
Keeping Well, Keeping Connected Anthology - CarersUK (2018)
Deep Song - Awakening To Love - Troubadours of Divine Bliss (2012)
Rowing Home: A Journey Through Grief Anthology - Cruse Bereavement Charity (2009)
Wild Women Press publications
The 3am Club Anthology (2006)
Byron Makes His Bed (2006)
Fragments (2006)
Fragile Bodies (2004)
Wild Women Hot Pot of Passion Anthology (2000)
Anchoring The Light (1999)
Howl At The Moon: Writings by Wild Women (1999)
AWARDS
All My Wild Mothers - recipient of an Author's Foundation Grant Society of Authors
All My Wild Mothers - Winner Northern Debut Award (non-fiction)- New Writing North (2020)
All My Wild Mothers -- longlisted Penguin WriteNow Programme (2020)
All My Wild Mothers - Longlisted for The Nan Shepherd Prize (2019)
ACE DYCP Grant 2021 exploring how literature can collaborate with immersive, digital spaces to share our grief stories
Shortlisted for Winston Churchill Fellowship (2020) for #Wild Woman Gamer
Highly Commended - Charroux Festival Memoir Prize (2029)
Highly Commended - Carers UK Photography Prize (2018)
CarersUK Writing Prize (2018) - Staff/Volunteer Choice
CommonUnity Award (Wild Women Press) - Post Office UK (2018)
Mother’s Milk Non-Fiction Writing Award (2017)
Digital Literature Bursary - The Writing Platform (2015)
Unsung Heroes Awards - shortlisted - Arts Council England (NW)
Northern Promise Award for Poetry - New Writing North (2002)
Andrew Waterhouse Award for Poetry - New Writing North (2002)
Millennium Mind Award for poetry - Anchoring The Light (1999)
WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES
CRIPtic Arts - Your Wild and Precious Life: discovering and nurturing your story (online, 2023)
Wild Women Press - Growing Older, Growing Wilder workshops (online, 2022)
Bernheim International Artists' Residency (Kentucky 2016)
Invisible Orchard Family Studio workshops (Cumbria, 2012 - 2016)
Lancaster University BA (Hons) Creative Writing - tutor (2004 - 2006)
Wild Women Workshops (Cumbria 1999 - 2007)
Prism Arts - arts without barriers - Hero Inside residency, A Day in A Life residency (1997 - 1999)
Survivors' Poetry facilitator - 1993 - 1996
PODCASTS
Gardening with the RHS
Plant Cunning
Gardening with the RHS Podcast
The Wildlife Community Podcast
Roots and All Podcast
The Audiobook Show - RNIB Radio
Prompted by Nature Podcast
Unfinishing Podcast
Resilience Rising Podcast
Caravan of the Heart Podcast
Type 1 and 1 Podcast
Brave New Girl Podcast
INTERVIEWS
Get Books - Women's Radio Station
Lifestyles - TRE Radio
Sunday Bookclub - BBC Radio West Midlands
Stephanie Finnon Show (Grief Special) - BBC Radio Cumbria Spelt Magazine
The Enchanted Emporium
The Daily Record
Ciadish
BBC Radio Cumbria
ARTICLES
Opinion piece - We are not under invasion - Press and Journal
Lessons in Loss and Wonder - Welldoing.org
Experiencing grieving alongside new motherhood - The Belfast Telegraph
Using gardening to cope with a diabetes diagnosis - The Reader's Digest
My Sister Died When I Was Pregnant - people treated me differently - HuffPost
My Sister Died Suddenly When I was Pregnant - i-News
Wild Gardening & Losing Control - Indy Voices (The Independent)
Pandemic schooling at home is not the same as home-schooling - IndyVoices (The Independent)
The Wildnerness Between Love and Loss - Cancer Wellness Magazine
Women in Gaming - TECHNique Podcast (2020)
Interview on Minecraft and Grief, 2017, Gimlet Podcast, New York City
Interview on #MeToo & Harvey Weinstein, TRT World, 2018
Mother’s Milk Blog - (May 2018)
The Howl: How Wild Women Came to Be - Jamie Dedes "The Poet By Day" Blog
Interview on My Mother's House: Grief, Poetry & Digital Gaming, Guardian Newspaper 2015
Interviews on The Naked Muse Photo-Poetry Project, 2011/12 -- BBC/Huffington Post/WriteOutLoud/PhillyMag/View From Here
Create Hub Arts & Digital Technology articles: Text to Tech (and Back Again); From #MeToo to #UsTogether; Losing and Finding; All The World’s A Stage; Pixels and Wood
TALKS & PERFORMANCES
Various readings UK - All My Wild Mothers
Spelt Magazine live event 2023
Poetry & Games Festival Panel 2022
Cheltenham Poetry Festival 2020
Digital Past Conference 2020
Deer Shed Festival 2019
Barnsley Literature Festival 2019
Death & Dying Conference Panel 2020
Greenbelt Festival, Literature Tent & The Red Tent 2018
Saboteur Awards 2018
UcLan Literary Events 2018
Stanza Poetry Festival 2018
Greenbelt Festival, Grief and Gaming talk 2016
Minecon, Grief and Gaming, Los Angeles 2016
Mix Conference, My Mother's House - Grief& Gaming, BathSpa 2015
Naked Muse Tour 2011/12
Wild Women Press Salons, 2000-2007
Poetry Cafe 2006
The Convent, 2006, BBC1
Glastonbury Festival, Poetry & Words Tent 2005
Sheffield Literary Festival 2005
Stirling Poetry & Sexuality Conference 2004
Brewery Arts Centre 2004
Arts in Mental Health Festival 2000
KEY PROJECT LINKS
To Start The Year From Its Quiet Centre
An intimate meditation on love and loss that tells the story of a relationship between women that is transformed through grief.
Bennett’s poetry is controlled, spare and with the particular magic of inviting the reader in right-up-close -- agonisingly beautiful,
(Deborah Alma, The Poetry Pharmacy)
Published by Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd. (August 2020).
Wild Women Press & The Wild Woman Web Project
Founded in 1999 with one simple mission: to offer a space where women could tell their stories and celebrate their wild. The Wild Women Poets have performed live at events around the UK and USA, and used their creativity to create positive change. We have worked with over 2000 women on a number of amazing projects, hosted the (in)famous Wild Women Salons.
The Wild Woman Web was started in 2018. Curated by Victoria, it is an inclusive space connecting wild women around the globe, with a focus on nature, creativity, and empowerment.
Minecraft Life Hacks Lab for Kids
VIctoria Bennett & Adam Clarke, Quarto Books 2019
A hands-on book for educators, parents, and players that encourages positive play, emotional intelligence, and responsible digital citizenship. Through a fun mix of in-game and hands-on projects, Unofficial Minecraft Life Hacks Lab for Kids shows how to develop the building blocks of positive communication, listening skills, leadership and collaboration traits, emotional empathy, self-confidence and self-control, and how these skills can be used to play positively and build a better world.
A VR-Music-Poetry collaboration with artist Adam Clarke, musician Beth Porter, and the #MeToo poetry anthology
A creative collaboration with digital artist Adam Clarke & and Beth Porter & Ben Please of The Bookshop Band to create a short VR music poetry video inspired by #MeToo: A Women's Poetry Anthology. Video created using Google Tilt Brush software. Longlisted for Best Collaboration - Saboteur Awards 2018
An international arts residency with Bernheim Forest, Kentucky
A unique 3 month residency, bringing together art, gaming, and nature through the perspective of an artist-family-in-residence. During our time at Bernheim, we created a series of poems and Minecraft maps in response to our experiences. These went on to become Wood and Pixels, an interactive Minecraft world that allows players to explore a range of locations within Bernheim
A playable Minecraft poem exploring terminal illness and loss
Supported by a bursary from The Writing Platform, and created in collaboration with artist, Adam Clarke. My Mother's House is a playable Minecraft poem that explores terminal illness and loss. I created this in response to my experience of being a carer for my mother through terminal cancer, during which time I was also a carer for my young son, as a way of exploring end-of-life experience with a young child. Featured in The Guardian and voted in the Top 5 Minecraft Maps 2016, and the Poetry Library Poetry & Games Festival 2022.
Exhibition and calendar curated by Victoria Bennett, featuring 41 poets and photographers
An exhibition featuring over thirty beautiful and unique nude male portraits of poets, created by women photographers in response to poems by women poets on the theme of the gaze -- one of the largest exhibitions of artwork by women featuring all male nudes. The project was featured widely in the media around the world.
Follow me follow...