
Rachel Piercey
Poet. Children’s writer. Editor. Tutor.
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Hello and welcome to my website! I am a London-based poet, editor and tutor who also writes for children. I studied English Literature at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where I was President of the Oxford University Poetry Society and won the Newdigate Prize. I also have an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway.
My poems for adults have been published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Rialto, Magma, and The Poetry Review. I have two pamphlets with the Emma Press, The Flower and the Plough and Rivers Wanted. My third pamphlet, Disappointing Alice, was published by HappenStance in 2019.
I am the editor of Tyger Tyger Magazine, an online journal of new poems for children, which publishes once a term with free downloadable poem posters and teaching resources. I have co-edited three anthologies for children with the Emma Press, on the subjects of mythology, space, and kings and queens. I regularly visit schools, libraries and festivals to read and perform my work, and I am available for bookings.
My search-and-find poetry picture book, If You Go Down to the Woods Today, illustrated by Freya Hartas, was published by Magic Cat in 2021. It’s set in a magical woodland world, with poems to read and things to find, and it has been translated into more than twenty different languages.
I teach for The Poetry School, The Poetry Society and regularly contribute to the Children’s Poetry Summit blog. I also run a workshopping group for children’s poets, called Zig Zag Stanza.