“Poetry for Ann was a currency, like conversation, its nature being to capture and clarify elusive ideas that might otherwise remain unformed: so her characteristic style was natural and conversational, often with a crackle of verbal play, and an alertness to the possibilities of language that enabled her to achieve an effect of sensuous exuberance without becoming incoherent or merely fancy.
She was a pianist and a skilled listener to music, with a background in dance and an openness to visual art and design. In poetry she had an enviable talent for beginning a piece without ceremony and ending it without strain: not every poet can do both.”
– from the Foreword by Roy Fisher
Ann Atkinson was a talented and passionate poet and twice winner of the York poetry prize. Her work was included in many anthologies she published two collections, Drawing Water (2009) and From Matlock to Mamelodi: 5,000 Miles of Poetry (2011).