JOOLZ DENBY - ARTIST - TATTOOIST - WRITER - POET
Joolz has been a professional poet for forty years, and has judged several awards, most recently the new South East Arts Performance Poetry Bursary Award. Her work is featured in teaching aids for schools, notably Michael Rosen’s ‘Why Poetry?’ Video Package for poetry in schools ( U.K, Australia and New Zealand) and the Oxford University Press Headwork English Programme for GCSE, edited by Chris Culshaw and Jill Dodgson. Her poetry has been published by Virgin Books, Bloodaxe and Comma Press.
She has performed at five Edinburgh Festivals, 25 Glastonbury Festivals (where she was a featured artist, playing to audiences of over 2,000 in the marquees, and appearing on the live television coverage of the Festival in 1999). She has performed at Roskilde Rock Festival (Denmark), Reading Rock Festival, Liss Ard Festival (Eire) and countless British Arts Festivals. Joolz has also represented England at International Arts Festivals in Canada, (where she was also artist in residence at The Western Front Arts Centre) Holland, Norway, Israel, USA, and Poland. In 1998, she gave a performance and participated in the British Council Conference on ‘English Studies In Eastern Europe’ held in Slovakia. During the past six years she has toured German Universities every Spring, lecturing on both her work and that of others. In 1997 she visited New Zealand and gave readings for the New Zealand Book Council.
In Britain, she reads throughout the year at venues ranging from the Albert Hall and The Purcell Rooms at the South Bank Centre, through Arts Centres, Student Unions, libraries, schools, clubs, rock venues pubs and coffee houses. She is also part of the cult performance group Red Sky Coven that regularly tours both Britain and Germany. She is an experienced broadcaster, having worked regularly for Radio Four (including Woman’s Hour), and Radio One, where she was a monthly guest for three years on The Mark Radcliffe Nighttime Show. She also presented the Sound Advice programme for Radio One. Joolz has worked with the majority of local radio stations in England and has appeared on television many times, including being the weekly guest poet on ITV’s Toksvig! programme.
Most recently, Joolz was involved in and featured on the BBC2 Education programme on Performance Poetry. She has written several novels - In 1998, she won The Crimewriter’s Association Award for New Crime Writer Of The Year with her novel ‘Stone Baby’. Her novel Billie Morgan was shortlisted for the Orange Prize For Literature. She has also released albums of her poetry set to music by Jah Wobble, Justin Sullivan, Mik Davis and her latest album, Crow, with renowned German composer Henning Nugel.