Nia Davies

CV – Dr Nia Davies

writer, editor, transdisciplinary researcher, performer, poet

Highlights

Transdisciplinary Researcher at Swansea University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, focusing on interdisciplinary collaboration. Co-researcher on several transdisciplinary projects including ‘REPAIR – Retrofitting for the Future: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation’.

PhD and Masters Creative Writing in practice-based research into poetry, ritual and performance from the University of Salford (2021).

Poetry publications include All fours (Bloodaxe, 2017) and Votive Mess (Bloodaxe, 2024).

Editorship of the journal Poetry Wales (2014 – 2019).

Co-curation of Poetry Emergency festivals (2018, 2019) and role with Literature Across Frontiers.

Publications

Full-length Poetry Collections

  • Votive Mess, October 2024, Bloodaxe.
  • All fours, June 2017, Bloodaxe

Peer-reviewed Essays

Published

Forthcoming

  • ‘Translation Fractals: an embodied afterlife of Y Deillion’.
  • ‘Break the poetry reading: antagonism and polyvocal poesis in Amy McCauley’s experimental poetry performance.

Creative publications

  • What catches on, what flows: a rainy city assemblage – multi-form zine on sustainable urban drainage, practice based research in progress, as part of REPAIR – Retrofitting the Future. March 2026.
  • On Maggie O’Sullivan’s ‘Naming’: Poets on Poets, Poetry Review, Summer 2025 115(2).
  • ‘Wear the Anklet as a Mask’ in Futch press, (2024).
  • Experimental translation poems in Experimental Translation, The Work of Translation in the Age of Algorithmic Production: Handbook of Translation Procedures by Lily Robert-Foley, Goldsmiths Press, (2024).
  • Feminist Studies Association newsletter poem for Incomplete project, 2024.
  • Seventeen editorials and other pieces for Poetry Wales Volumes, volumes 50-55, 2014-2019.
  • ‘Like breathing out’ piece on Alan Whitfield and The Street Matters with Glyn Vivian Gallery, Swansea (2023).
  • ‘Roads to Rome’: an essay in Cultural Practices (2021) on fine art archive research through Collaboration Labs for the British School in Rome BSR.
  • Poetry in Magazines and edited volumes: Futch journal (2024), Prototype (2023), Black Box Manifold (with Amy McCauley) (2021) and poems for Geraldine Monk (2023), York Literary Review (2018), MAI – Feminism (2017), Ploughshares (2014), New Welsh Review (2016), Poetry London (2014), Lighthouse (2015), MPT (2016), Poetry Wales. Poetry in anthologies: Handbook of Translation Procedures (forthcoming, 2024), Earthlines – Geopoetry (2021), Canalchemy with Steven Hitchens (LBP 2019), PoEx Santiago de Chile and Valparaiso Chile (2019), The Edge of Necessary (Aquifer, 2018), Spells (Ignota, 2018), Wretched Strangers anthology (Boilerhouse, 2018), Datableed (2015), Kakania (2015), Ghosts of Gone Birds – exhibition and publication (Bloomsbury, 2013), Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt, 2011), Binders full of women (2012).
  • Pamphlets and collaborations: Key Blank – Handmade miniature art book(Literary Pocket Book, 2018), limited edition. England (Crater, 2017), letter-press limited edition. Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmısınız or Long Words (Hafan/Boiled String, 2016),Then Spree (Salt, 2012). Interversions with Mamta Sagar (Poetrywala, 2018) and various live performances at festivals in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi and Bhubaneswar. Roid Rage (2019) and Awen! (2023) with Rhys Trimble, Ooze with Amy McCauley (Blackbox Manifold), Oceanik: videopoem with Lucia Sellars winner of Outstanding Poem and Poetry Impact award from the Film and Video Poetry Society USA (2018).

Curation and Editorial

2021-present : NAWR – curatorial collective for this Wales-based series of experimental live multi-art events, festivals and concerts and three editions of Gŵyl NAWR festival 2023-2025.

2018, 2019 :  Poetry Emergency, two editions of festivals of radical poetry and performance in Manchester and Salford, 2018 and 2019.

2014-2019: Poetry Wales, editor of seventeen issues, volumes 50 to 55, including editorials and related live events (see above for more details).

2017-2019 : with Literature Across Frontiers. Co-curation, assistance and participation in events and collaborations in Wales and India. North Wales International Poetry Festival.

2011- 2016 : Mercator Institute: Literature Across Frontiers and Wales Literature Exchange assistance to various curators and events in numerous countries at festivals, book fairs and translation projects, see above.

Spring 2015 : Gelynion, Wales. Co-curated a collaborative event and tour programme involving over 60 poets across numerous events in Wales and London.

Employment and Self-Employed projects

Feb 2023-present    Research Assistant, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Swansea.

Supporting multidisciplinary research at various stages of the research life cycle. Co-Researcher on REPAIR: Retrofitting the Future: Nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, an AHRC THRIVE-funded transdisciplinary research project focusing on Biophilic living in Swansea and the Biome building. Also supporting projects in areas such as place-based transdisciplinary community-focused research, climate action, gender, AI, and culture in the humanities and social sciences. Teaching workshops for undergraduates, postgraduates and community groups on poetry writing, arts and embodied practice.

Spring 2021  Research consultant with Collaboration Labs at Manchester University. Digital media research for a fine arts archive with partners the British School in Rome.

2020 – 2021 Digital workshops with Seren educational network Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, ‘How can we live with nature’.

2014-2019     Editor, Poetry Wales.

Editorship of seventeen issues of international magazine Poetry Wales from 2014 to 2019, Volumes 50 to 55.

2007 – 2016  Mercator Institute on Literature Across Frontiers and Cyfnewidfa Lên Cymru / Wales Literature Exchange inAberystwyth University (Freelance)

Communications and project support for network of international partners on multiple activities across the literary field with the aim of ‘making literature travel,’ facilitating collaboration and research in intercultural literary exchange.

May 2009 – Dec 2011     Communications Officer, PACT  Prison Advice and Care Trust, London.

Selected Invited Poetry Readings, Performances & Talks

  • ReSighting: The Fragility of Idyls, group performance for Penny Hallas’s exhibition Sightings/Gweld, Elysium Gallery, Swansea.
  • PoEx CDMX – Performance and Performance talk at PoEx festival of experimental poetry, Mexico City, September 2025.
  • RELAY group performance at Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, June 2025.
  • Cultures of Coal presentations in Swansea and AWWE Gregynog Hall. Radio performance, Big Pit Museum, curated by Mort Drew and Sadia Pineda Hameed, March 2025.
  • Knitting Fog poetry commission and performance at Brynaman cinema, curated by Jessica Lerner, May 2025.
  • East Bristol Books performance, October 2025. Surrey Poetry Festival, April 2025.
  • Performance and performance-talk at Anthology as Manifesto: A Jerome Rothenberg Symposium, University of Glasgow, March 2025.
  • Gestures: Writing that moves between, launch event performance, RCA Battersea, April 2025.
  • Peter Barlow’s Cigarette poetry, Manchester, February 2025.
  • Performance talk on contemporary experimentation in poetry in Wales at AWWE annual conference, Gregynog Hall, May 2024.
  • Launch performances for Votive Mess, Swansea 2024. Curated launch event with music, readings and performances at Elysium bar. Gŵyl NAWR festival performances November 2024.
  • Incomplete – feminist possibilities of unfinished film, commissioned poetry performance. Swansea, December 2023.
  • Talking performance, Tess Wood and Heike Roms, Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff, November 2023.
  • Online: performance talk and seminar on ritual poetry: Jornada – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2022, Roehampton 2022 and Glasgow 2023 university Creative Writing programmes. Nawr performance, 2022 and 2023, Abertawe Language is a Virus, online 2021 and Pontio, Bangor 2023. Carthorse Orchestra Online Performance of Mamaiaith, 2021.
  • Hay-on-Wye, ‘Writers at Work’ performance and residency, May 2023.
  • Performances for Sol Cinema, circus and theatre field, Glastonbury festival 2023. Installation and performance, Sol Cinema birthday party, Penclawdd September 2023.
  • ‘Decentric’ group performance for Tactile Bosch, Cardiff, 2022 and 2019. Gestures – Writing that Moves Between, symposium, Manchester, 2019.
  • PhD performance showing and workshop, ‘Mamaiaith’, Salford University New Adelphi Theatre, August 2019.
  • Istanbul Poetry Festival, April 2019. Goran Spring Festival, Croatia, March 2018. Luna de Locos festival Colombia, Pereira, September 2018, 17 events and workshops in various venues and settings. & Calaca Literature Festival, Colombia, September 2018. PoEx, Santiago de Chile, plus performances at various events including Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. January 2019. Projectivisms poetry symposium, Cardiff, 2018. Hay festival: 2018 – Poetry Connections Wales India.
  • Wales India Poetry Connections 2017-2019: collaboration with Mamta Sagar ‘Interversions’ plus other India events and workshops in Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Kochi and in Bengaluru: Srishti Institute, Indian Institute of Science, 1Shanthi road.
  • Poetry in Expanded Translation: Bangor, Mulhouse, London, AHRC network with three symposia, 2017-2019. Georgia Poetry Translation Workshop, with Literature Across Frontiers, Tiblisi, 2015, see anthology Six Georgian Poets (Arc, 2016). Wales Latvia Poetry Translation Workshop, Aberystwyth 2015, with Literature Across Frontiers. Reel Iraq – translation workshop and Erbil literature festival, Kurdistan, Reel events, 2014. Poetry International, South Bank Centre, London, 2012, and with Poetry Wales in 2014.
  • Performances at live series since 2012, e.g. No matter Manchester, Xing the line London, The Other Room Manchester, Canalchemy and Ghost Jam series Wales, The Cardiff Poetry Experiment, First Thursday Chapter Arts Cardiff, Bratislava poetry festival, Five Leaves and Nottingham University. Gelynion: several events and tour in Wales and London, 2015.