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Sophie McKeand

Rebel Sun

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Young People’s Laureate Wales April 2016 - 2018

Winner of the Out Spoken award for Innovation in Poetry 2015

Longlisted, Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition 2014


'Sophie McKeand's Rebel Sun is no dying star, but a fiery tour de force, full of surreal and ingenious imagery. [...] a passionate and heartfelt book, a collection of modern agitprop poetry in which Marxism and landscape rub easy shoulders, and the Rebel Sun acts as an agitator, its manifesto calling for a reconnection with the natural world [...] Accomplished and vibrant, this is a collection to cherish.' – Kathy Miles, Planet

Rebel Sun is a compelling, shapeshifting exploration of land and myth, the deep roots of our history, our relationship to nature and to ourselves, merging visions of the past with narratives of the close-up and personal. To hear Sophie McKeand’s work aloud is to be captivated, stunned; on the page the poems are no less profound. This is mythological, musical poetry that not only crosses borders but seems to dismantle them entirely, collapsing time and space, transfiguring and prefiguring the world we live in.’ – Martha Sprackland

A firecracker of a collection.’ – Kaite O’Reilly

‘Sophie McKeand is a force. Her “heart is anchored” in the nature and topography of north Wales.’ – Chris Kinsey

‘…these are breathing, shape-shifting poems… image after image drawing the reader closer to understanding about the world at large and in micro…’ – clare e. potter

Sophie McKeand’s first full-length poetry collection speaks of socialism and starlings, and sings the praise of the Rebel Sun who recreates the world every day so that at any time we can cast off the past and do the same. These poems dream of the fluidity and politics, of time and place, map mountain and mind. They talk of knitting together people and communities. But after this comes the slow unravelling – the compulsion to let go, transform and shape-shift; slowly unwind roots from the earth; grow fin and feather; know water and sky.

Michael Sheen performed a poem Sophie McKeand had written for the 50th Anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster at Wales Millennium Centre in 2016:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/michael-sheen-gives-moving-recital-12018594.

Sophie McKeand is a mesmerising performer and TED talker who performs regularly across the UK – see her gig guide here: http://sophiemckeand.com/blog/index.php/performances

 

Sophie McKeand is an award-winning, self-employed poet from north Wales with poetry published in various magazines such as Poetry Wales, Tears in the Fence, The Lonely Crowd and Bare Fiction. She has performed at Green Man, Wilderness, Uncivilsation, Dinefwr and Focus Wales festivals as well as on the Caught by the River stage at The Good Life. Blogger at Huffington Post and new contributor at Wales Arts Review as well as being creative associate at Get The Chance. McKeand currently focuses on bringing poetry to various community groups across Wales through working with organisations such as Literature Wales, National Theatre Wales, Arts Council Wales, Age Cymru and Barnardos.