Galleymore is a gifted young poet whose pamphlet Dazzle Ship received excellent reviews. She held a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2012 and her poems have appeared in magazines such as Poetry Review, Poetry London and The Rialto.

A sense of place and an exploration of ecology are central themes in Galleymore’s poems and she is particularly keen to develop these further through her residency, whilst investigating these aspects within Causley’s poems too. Her poems have been inspired by locations from St Neot’s Holy Well to Dartmoor tin mines and Wembury’s bioluminescent algae.
Prior to the residency she plans to spend the coming months completing her PhD at Exeter University where she is researching the relationship between poetry and the natural environment.

As well as giving Galleymore the opportunity to focus on her own practice a central aim of the residency programme is to bring poetry out into the community through a series of activities, workshops, readings and online resources.

The residency is part of a larger literature project, Spark to Flame, which has been grant funded with £48k from the Arts Council of England. This unlocks further investment from Cornwall Council, Literature Works and Launceston Town Council and Plymouth University. There will be three further residency opportunities at the house during 2016-17. The project takes its name from the closing lies of Charles Causley’s poem’ Kelly Wood’:

“Strike Steel on flint against the page of dark,
Wait patiently for the first spark. A flame.”

Isabel Galleymore said “It is a great honour to become poet-in-residence in Causley’s home in Launceston. To be given the support and space to dedicate to writing and to engage others with poetry is a real privilege that will inspire and inform my poetry in a way that no other experience could match. I look forward to continuing work on my first full collection of poems and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with communities in Cornwall: a county that holds such a rich array of landscapes to write about.”

David Fryer, Chair of the Charles Causley Trust said “The Trust is delighted to continue working with our partners to see the Spark to Flame project underway with the appointment of Isabel Galleymore as the next Charles Causley writer in residence. We wish Isabel all the best with her residency and are excited to see the residency programme develop further with her at the helm.”
Cornwall Council cabinet member for economy and culture Julian German said “Cornwall Council is thrilled to support the Spark to Flame literature project and to see it continuing to invigorate the literature sector in Cornwall. We feel that the residency will enable Isabel Galleymore to take a significant step forward in her career as a poet whilst allowing local communities to benefit from her already considerable literary talent and expertise.”

Dr Rachel Christofides, Associate Head of School: English and Creative Writing, University of Plymouth said ‘The department of English and Creative Writing at Plymouth University is delighted to support the Spark to Flame project, and to extend a warm welcome to Isabel Galleymore as the next Writer in Residence. We are excited to participate in a project which promotes the poetry of Charles Causley not only regionally but also nationally and internationally. Poetry and poetics play a central role in the life of the department for our students and our staff, and through our collaboration with park to Flame and its writer in residence programme we hope to engage new udiences in the pleasures of reading and writing poetry.’

Tracey Guiry, CEO of Literature Works said “Long-term residencies like these offer a unique and invaluable opportunity for talented Poets to develop new work in ways that lay strong foundations for their whole career and we hope to extend this residency programme and others around the region.”