Rhizodont

About Katrina Porteous

Katrina Porteous was born in Aberdeen grew up in Co. Durham and has lived on the Northumberland coast since 1987. She read History at Cambridge and afterwards studied in the USA on a Harkness Fellowship. Many of the poems in her first collection The Lost Music (Bloodaxe Books 1996) focus on the Northumbrian fishing community about which Katrina has also written in prose in The Bonny Fisher Lad (The Peoples History 2003). Katrina also writes in Northumbrian dialect and has recorded her long poem The Wund an the Wetter on CD with piper Chris Ormston (Iron Press 1999). Her second full-length collection from Bloodaxe Two Countries (2014) was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature in 2015. Katrina has been involved in many collaborations with other artists including public art for Seaham Co. Durham with sculptor Michael Johnson and two books with maritime artist James Dodds Longshore Drift (Jardine Press 2005) and The Blue Lonnen (Jardine Press 2007). She often performs with musicians including Chris Ormston Alistair Anderson and Alexis Bennett. She is particularly known for her radio-poetry much of it produced by Julian May. One of these poems Horse with electronic music by Peter Zinovieff first performed at Sage Gateshead for the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011 is published as an artists book and CD with prints by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Windmillsteads Books 2014). Katrinas third full-length collection Edge (Bloodaxe Books 2019) draws on three collaborations commissioned for performance in Life Science Centre Planetarium Newcastle between 2013 and 2016 with multi-channel electronic music by Peter Zinovieff: Field Sun and Edge. Sun was part of NUSTEMs Imagining the Sun project for schools and the wider public (Northumbria University 2016). Edge a poem in four moons incorporating sounds collected from space missions was broadcast as a Poetry Please Special on BBC Radio 4 in 2013. Her fourth poetry book from Bloodaxe Rhizodont will be published in June 2024.