Cardiff School of Education & Social Policy>Staff>Christina Thatcher

Dr Christina Thatcher

​ ​ ​ ​ ​Cecilia Hannigan-Davies ​Position:Lecturer in Creative Writing
​School:​ Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy
​E- mail: cthatcher@cardiffmet.ac.uk
​ Telephone:​02920 205228
​Room No:​B116

 

Research

Research Groups:

  • Arts and Humanities Research Group (AHRG)
  • Research into Masculinities (RiMS)

Memberships:

  • Higher Education Academy Fellowship (FHEA)
  • European Association of Creative Writing Programmes (EACWP)
  • National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE)
  • Lapidus: The Writing for Wellbeing Organisation
  • Literature Wales
  • The Poetry Society

Research Interests:

  • Contemporary British and American poetry
  • Narrative nonfiction and 'confessional' poetry ethics, theory and practice
  • Creative writing process, pedagogy and theory
  • Poetry therapy and expressive writing
  • Interdisciplinary creative writing research linked to social sciences and medical humanities

Publications

Books
Thatcher, C. (2020) How To Carry Fire. Cardigan, Wales: Parthian Books. 

'Thatcher's stunning second collection blazes a trail through the agonies and joys of human relationships in a voice that is terse, tense and urgent.' – Robert Walton 


Thatcher, C. (2017) More than you were. Cardigan, Wales: Parthian Books.

'This defiant, engrossing depiction of a father and a daughter makes for an extremely accomplished poetry collection.' – Wales Arts Review

 

Individual Poems and Short Stories

Journal Articles
Thatcher, C. (2020). In Dialogue: How Writing to the Dead and the Living Can Increase Self-Awareness in Those Bereaved by Addiction. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820976277

Thatcher, C. (2018) 'Losing Andrew: Disenfranchised Grief in Shelly Wagner's Poetry', Scriptum: Creative Writing Journal, Volume 5: Issue 21, pp. 22-43.

Reviews

Thatcher, C. (2017) 'Art, Loss and The Story of M'. Review of The Story of M, by SuAndi. Writing in Education, Autumn Edition, pp. 63-64.

Projects

Critical

My recent PhD research project explored how creative writing can impact individuals bereaved by addiction. In particular, it examined the impact creative writing has on adults who have accessed, or are currently accessing, services offered by organisations specialising in bereavement or family addiction across England and Wales.

Current critical research projects explore how writing can impact women with mental health conditions; the impact that community writers groups have on writers in Wales; and the poetic representations of femininity and masculinity in rodeo riding. 

 

Creative

I am currently working on my third poetry collection, Breaking a Mare, which was awarded a Literature Wales Writers' Bursary in 2018. Poems from this collection have recently been shortlisted in the 2020 Buzzwords Open Competition and the 2020 Ver Poets Open Competition, among others.  

Community Outreach Projects

I founded and continue run the largest writers' group in Wales, Roath Writers. This group meets twice a month and aims to provide a welcoming space for writers of all levels to write, develop, and share their work in an informal workshop environment.

I am also a Widening Access tutor at Cardiff Metropolitan University which means I am engaged in ongoing projects that aim to bring creative writing into schools and the wider community.

A list of my past community outreach projects linked to bereavement, mental health, addiction and more can be found on my website.

Profile

I am an American poet, fiction and nonfiction writer with research interests in contemporary poetry, creative writing pedagogy and the role of creative writing in therapeutic and community contexts. I am also interested in interdisciplinary creative writing research within the social sciences and medical humanities.

 

I joined Cardiff Metropolitan University full-time in January 2019 and teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Before starting my role here, I completed a BSc in English Literature and Secondary Education (Temple University), an MA in the Teaching and Practicing of Creative Writing (Cardiff University) and an MA in Equity Issues in Education (University of York). My Master's degrees were both undertaken with the aid of a Marshall Scholarship. In 2020, I completed my PhD at Cardiff University which explores how creative writing can impact those bereaved by addiction.

 

I have published two poetry collections with Parthian Books: More than you were (2017) and How to Carry Fire (2020). I am also the Poetry Editor of The Cardiff Review, a tutor for The Poetry School, and a member of the Literature Wales Management Board.

 

More information is available at christinathatcher.com. You can also follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram @writetoempower.