Becky Cherriman

Becky Cherriman is a Leeds-based writer, educator, performer, and facilitator.

She has a poetry pamphlet, ‘Echolocation’ (Mother’s Milk), and collection, ‘Empires of Clay’ (Cinnamon Press). Becky’s poems have also been printed by Seren, Mslexia, The North, Envoi, Stand and Bloodaxe. Her work has been named in the Women’s Poetry and Women’s Poets’ Competition, Fish Short Story Prize, Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic, and the Forward Prize. Her flash fiction has been published in ‘The Forgotten and The Fantastical’, a book of adult fairy tales, and hung on umbrellas in Grassington Market Square.

Other commissions include being resident poet for Morley Literature Festival and Altofts Lit Fest in a Day, an audio poem for The Cultural Institute in 2020 and Haunt, a site-specific theatre show about homelessness. In 2016-17, Becky received Arts Council funding to create a theatre show and exhibition, Corseted, which connected the story of a 19th Century radical Leeds suffragist with that of a modern-day women’s rights activist.

Becky’s main occupation since 2003 has been connecting communities with creative writing and performance, including nine years of co-leading the Ilkley Young Writers and Bradford Young Writers groups. She works part-time in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds Lifelong Learning Centre.