‘Fizzing with insistent energy… full of crystalline images and metaphors…. Frears is excellent on sexual politics, the end of girlhood.’ ––– The Guardian
‘Frears’ work is ideal for poetry newbies – the intriguing narration will immediately draw you in. She splices humour with thought-provoking imagery and Fleabag-style talk-to-camera- moments that will make you feel seen.’ ––– Stylist Magazine
‘This poet is a bit special. She’s exciting, a bit scary and sort of brilliant’ –– Frank Skinner
BIOGRAPHY
Ella Frears is a poet and artist originally from Cornwall, now based in London. Her debut collection, Shine, Darling, (Corsair, 2020) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. Goodlord (Rough Trade Books & Corsair 2024), a hybrid work which takes the form of one long email to an estate agent, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the Sky Arts Award for Times Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Ella is this year’s Poetry Fellow at University East Anglia.
Ella’s poems have been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Slovak, and Cornish. She has performed internationally at Galle literary festival in Sri Lanka, at the Istanbul Poetry festival in Turkey, as well as at events in Copenhagen, Kristiansand, Frankfurt, Groningen, Lisbon, Milan, and Lugano. Ella will be at Singapore Writers Festival, and Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia this year.
Her collaborative installation with artist Ben Sanderson, The Six Pillars of Modernism (2017), was on show at Tate Gallery, St.Ives, and Ella’s poems about the St Ives Modernists are still on display there. She has had residencies and commissions for galleries including the John Hansard Gallery, the Chisenhale Gallery, a durational performance at the Design Museum for artist Linder Sterling’s Another music in a different Arcadia (2018), and a performance and text for Elizabeth Price’s Sound of the Break (2023) at the Schirn, Frankfurt.
In 2022, Ella was named first ever Poet in Residence for the Dartington Trust’s grade II listed Gardens, selected by Alice Oswald. In 2023, Ella was Creative Fellow at Exeter University working with the Maritime Environmental History Department. She has been awarded residences at Tate Britain, K6 Gallery, SPUD, Back from the Brink, Royal Holloway University’s physics department and most recently was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Ella has had writing published in the London Review of Books, the Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Ambit, The Rialto, and the Moth among others. She has been a trustee and editor for Magma Poetry since 2014.
Ella has taught poetry and creative writing for the Arvon foundation, the Guardian Masterclass, the Poetry School, the Poetry Society, Kew Gardens, the Dartington Trust, Spread the Word, City Lit, and as an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths University. She is currently poet in Residence for First Story at Langdon Park School in Poplar.
Her poetry writing card game The Poetry Fruit Machine, co-written with Jessica Todd is out with Rough Trade Books. Ella hosts both chat and music shows Stress Test and Tears for Frears on Soho Radio.
Ella Frears 