Valerie Laws Biography
Poet, performer, crime novelist, playwright and sci-art installation specialist. Her new poetry book 'All That Lives' arises from funded Residencies at a London Pathology Museum, at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health working with neuroscientists creating poetry about the brain’s bizarre beauty and life cycle, and Evolving Words for Darwin 200. Her 11 books include poetry (including 3 full collections) , crime & comedy fiction, and drama. Many prizes, including Wellcome Trust Arts Award, twice prizewinner in National Poetry competition, two Northern Writers' Awards. Devises new forms of poetry, science-themed poetry installations and commissions including the infamous Quantum Sheep, an Arts Council-funded project spray-painting random haiku onto live sheep. She featured in BBC2 TV's Why Poetry Matters, with Griff Rhys Jones, and live at Royal Festival Hall, London. Poetry AV installations (eg Slicing the Brain) feature in public exhibitions in London, Berlin, Newcastle et al. She performs worldwide. Many residencies, including in Egypt.She has written 12 commissioned plays for stage and BBC radio.
‘I must get back to the men, ' my mother announces,
Then slyly meets my eye, as I choose, this time,
To avoid my usual reply. ‘I know what you're thinking! '
She's triumphant. ‘That there's only one of them! But
...
Third anniversary of my mother's death from dementia,
And I'm looking at slices of brain, stained pretty pink,
The neurones purplish, their nuclei clear as strawberry pips.
...
Slice after slice, she has dished up her sleep to them,
keeping only the smallest piece for herself.
Now, tiredness keeps her warm, like fur.
She's up before dawn, alone,
...
My heart used to beat in the swift,
sharp tap of my high heels,
pecking out the rhythm of my blood. Now
heart and feet are out of step,
...
Excited, she tugs me up to her bedroom of thirty years.
‘Look! There's all this here! ' A sweep of her arm presents
Melamine wardrobes with fancy handles, the swagged
Pink curtains she sewed herself. Back downstairs,
...
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