Anna is a poet from Northern Ireland. Prior to starting her PhD, she completed a BA in English with Creative Writing at Queen's University, Belfast and an MA in Creative Writing and the Writing Industries at Loughborough University.
Searching for Eliza: a creative-critical thesis on writing trans histories and afterlives.
PGR Supervisors: Dr Sarah Parker and Dr Kerry Featherstone
The thesis is a creative-critical response to the 'afterlife' of Eliza Edwards, a nineteenth-century trans woman whose death was widely reported in the press, about whom we know little beyond this medical/legal context. The aim is to interrogate and challenge existing approaches to 'recovering' voices from the past, with an interest in ethics, care, and how 'transcestors' have a right to unknowability. The creative element of the thesis will form a poetry collection.
Chords of Inquiry, pamphlet (The Lifeboat Press, 2018). A selection of poems in Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry (The Lifeboat Press, 2021).