Bio:
Hannah Brockbank is joint winner of the 2016 Kate Betts Award. Publications featuring her work include Hallelujah for 50ft Women Anthology (Bloodaxe), A Way through the Woods Anthology (Binsted Arts), Full Moon & Foxglove Anthology (Three Drops Press), The London Magazine, Envoi, Sarasvati, Atrium, Procreate MAMA, When Women Waken Journal, Bonnie’s Crew (in aid of Leeds Congenital Hearts Unit), and Words for the Wild. Her poems also featured in the Chalk Poets Anthology as part of the 2016 Winchester Poetry Festival. She has poems on display at the Museum of Motherhood (M.O.M.), Florida, U.S.A., and has written feature essays for Thresholds International Short Story Forum. She has featured in articles and interviews in The Poetry Shed, A Restricted View from Under the Hedge, and British Life in Poetry. Her first pamphlet, Bloodlines was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing (2017). She is currently studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Chichester.
Recent Publications:
26/3/19 My poem, ‘The Wake’ is published in Atrium as its poem of the day.
15/3/19 My poems, ‘Acanthis’, ‘Bowl Barrow’, ‘Glass Fish’, and ‘Moving’ published in A Restricted View from Under the Hedge, vol. 4.
31/10/18 My poem, ‘Hair’ and an article on Bloodlines is published in A Restricted View from Under the Hedge, vol. 3.
31/10/18 Bloodlines interview published in A Restricted View from Under the Hedge, vol.3.
11/18 My poem ‘Clinton Cards’ featured on British Life in Poetry, column 33.
6/10/18 My poems, ‘Martha’ and ‘Human Skeleton’ alongside feature in The Poetry Shed.
Abstract:
Matrifocal poetry gives voice to those in the domain of motherwork, with a view to promoting healing and social change. Hannah Brockbank pays witness to her creative process through the uncovering of ‘emotional truths’ surrounding birth trauma. Her paper discusses how poetry can become a site of revelation, and a testimonial to the experience of perineal tear, episiotomy, prolapse and hysterectomy. By embracing a personal resistance to the coercive and idealized constructions of motherhood, Brockbank considers the wider implications of maternal life writing which makes visible concealed obstetric/birth trauma and so creates scope for social change.
Writing to Heal: The Artistic Embodiment of Birth Trauma in Poetry
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