Karen Hayes

Karen is a poet and librettist and specialises in creating verbatim poetry with people living with dementia and other marginalised groups. Having established herself as an actor, devising performer and musician with Public Parts Theatre Company she rebooted her career as a writer and poet after having children. She has worked extensively within the field of poetry and dementia and published two collections THE EDGES OF EVERYWHERE and ONLY JUST ORCHID as well as two operas and a song cycle in the field. She regularly runs traing and workshop sessions in the practice of Poetry and dementia. Her libretto writing work has been with WNO, Three choirs Festival and Birmingham Hippodrome Opera Quest. She has a long history of collaborative work across art forms including music, dance and visual arts and recently collaborated on a pop-up museum installation in Manchester A CARGO OF CURIOSITIES. Her latest collection of poems is THE HOUSES ALONG THE WALL pub Holland Park Press in 2018.

Recent Publications

• The Houses along the Wall - Holland Park Press, Sept 2018

Awards and residencies

• Charles Causley writer in residence - June-Sept 2016