Helen Calcutt

Helen Calcutt
Born	(1988-03-27) 27 March 1988 Midlands, England
Occupation(s)	poet, dancer, choreographer

Helen Calcutt (born 27 March 1988), is a British poet, dancer, and choreographer.

Writing career

Calcutt is the author of three collections. Her debut, Sudden rainfall was published by British publishing house Perdika Press. It was a PBS Choice on publication and became Waterstone's best-selling pamphlet in 2016. Her second pamphlet Somehow was published by Verve Poetry Press in September 2020. It was a PBS Winter Bulletin Pamphlet, and Poetry School Book of the Year (2020, shortlist). Her full-length collection Feeling all the kills was published by Pavilion Poetry in April 2024.

Calcutt was one of the six poets selected to perform at the 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, hosted in Birmingham. Her poem "Mother, the city", written for the ceremony, was performed as part of its opening scene 'Everything to Everybody'.

Calcutt also writes for The Guardian, the HuffPost, Poetry London, and the Wales Arts Review. In 2023, she was awarded an honorary degree from Loughborough University for her outstanding contribution to the arts.

Dance

Calcutt is a professional dancer, performer, and choreographer. She has directed movement for theatre, site-specific productions, and independent film, working with a specialism in the conversation between text and movement. She is Artistic Director of 'Beyond Words', making radical new dance theatre that 'breaks language'.

Calcutt originally trained in jazz and commercial dance, before studying contemporary movement and later moving into choreography and movement direction. She has performed and co-created with The Birmingham Royal Ballet, Apple, Sonia Sabri Company, Birmingham 22, Def Motion, Vamos Cuba, and many others. She is also a Latin and Cuban salsa dancer.

Activism

Calcutt is an activist for mental health awareness, and male suicide prevention. She is the creator and editor of the poetry anthology, 'Eighty Four' The title stands for the number of men who take their lives every week in the U.K. The book was published by Verve Poetry Press (2019) was shortlisted for the Saboteur Best Anthology Award, 2019, and was a Poetry Wales Book of The Year 2019.

Calcutt lost her own brother to suicide in September 2017.

Bibliography

• 2013: Sudden rainfall, Perdika Press, ISBN 978-1-905649-17-4
• 2018: Unable Mother, V.Press, ISBN 978-1-9998444-0-0
• 2019: Anthology Eighty Four Verve Poetry Press ISBN 978-1-91256513-9
• 2020: Somehow Verve Poetry Press, ISBN 978-1-912565-42-9
• 2024: Feeling all the kills Pavilion Poetry, ISBN 978-1-802074-72-7

External links

• Official website
• The Guardian, author page
• The Huffington Post, author page
• The Lampeter Review, Issue 6 2012
• Interview, Birmingham Review, 2015