Welcome to the website of poet and writer Shirley-Anne Kennedy.
Shirley-Anne is a working class writer from the north of England who is passionate about the change creative writing can bring to people’s lives and helping to support others to find their voice. She holds a Masters Degree with Distinction in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester and BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from the University of Bolton where she graduated with First Class Honours and the Carcanet Press Award.
She is a former co-organiser of Write Out Loud in Middleton and Kulturá, a poetry lecture and open mic night in Todmorden. In 2009 her web fiction series Refuge of Delayed Souls was awarded a Google Blog of Note and received recognition for its ‘unique use of the blog format.’ In 2017 she won a place on New Writing North’s talent development programme Significant Ink which supports writers to develop scripts for television.
Shirley-Anne has supported a number of community projects with her writing, community engagement, event organisation and digital skills. From 2017 until 2021 she was the ‘social media superstar’ at The Bolton Review, a creative arts magazine from the University of Bolton, where her role also involved producing the digital edition of the magazine.
Shirley-Anne’s poems and short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She is twice winner of The Bolton Poetry Competition and runner-up in the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival poetry competition. She has performed at various events including One Mic Stand at the Contact Theatre in Manchester, Reading the Century – a Gallipoli centenary event at the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum, the New Writing Showcase at the Bolton Octagon and alongside Hollie McNish and Claire Pollard at the launch of Writing Bolton.
Shirley-Anne Kennedy 