Polly Atkin

Polly Atkin (FRSL) is a poet and nonfiction writer, whose work focuses on nature, place and disability. Her poetry collections are Basic Nest Architecture (Seren, 2017), Much With Body (Seren, 2021), and Emergency Dream (Seren, 2026). Her first nonfiction book, Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth (Saraband, 2021) was longlisted for the Barbellion award 2021. Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better (Sceptre, 2023 and Unnamed, 2024), which was Lakeland Book of the Year in 2024, and The Company of Owls (Elliott and Thompson, 2024 and Milkweed, 2026) were both longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. Her poetry and prose appears in various anthologies and academic editions. She works as a freelancer from her home in the English Lake District, where she co-owns historic Grasmere bookshop Sam Read Bookseller.