"Ann Atkinson writes wonderfully precise, clear-eyed poems that focus on love and nature, home and world, from the hummingbird moth to the self-immolation of a protesting Buddhist monk, with equal empathy, skill and insight. Her technique is unshowy but sophisticated, and while she is often witty, she is always warm. The craft, art, and humanity of Drawing Water make it a delight to read, and a pleasure I urge you to share with me."
Ian Duhig
"The poems in Drawing Water are deceptively simple, but are so elegantly, even fastidiously written that they surprise the miraculous within the everyday. The act of walking a chalk line turns into an epiphany of freedom; a vicar playing Sousa marches becomes an epitome of incomprehension; a woman disappears into her allotment and a moth on a Venetian terrace becomes a telling image of independence. Here is an imaginative world distinguished by its humanity and its entrancing, strange familiarity. I read this pamphlet at one sitting – and then read it again"
Chris McCully
Ann Atkinson grew up on Teesside, but has lived in the Peak District for over thirty years. She taught Creative Writing in Higher Education, was an editor of Staple for seven years, and is currently Derbyshire Poet Laureate. Her poems have appeared in a number of publications including The Nerve, Virago, and Take Five, Shoestring Press.
Ian Duhig
"The poems in Drawing Water are deceptively simple, but are so elegantly, even fastidiously written that they surprise the miraculous within the everyday. The act of walking a chalk line turns into an epiphany of freedom; a vicar playing Sousa marches becomes an epitome of incomprehension; a woman disappears into her allotment and a moth on a Venetian terrace becomes a telling image of independence. Here is an imaginative world distinguished by its humanity and its entrancing, strange familiarity. I read this pamphlet at one sitting – and then read it again"
Chris McCully
Ann Atkinson grew up on Teesside, but has lived in the Peak District for over thirty years. She taught Creative Writing in Higher Education, was an editor of Staple for seven years, and is currently Derbyshire Poet Laureate. Her poems have appeared in a number of publications including The Nerve, Virago, and Take Five, Shoestring Press.