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I am Professor of Creative Writing here at Manchester Met.
I have published four collections of poetry, most recently Sleeping Keys, published in 2013. My previous collection Tilt won the Costa Poetry Award in 2008, and my books have also been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize. I am also the author of Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach, which won the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012.
My research interests are in creative writing: principally poetry, but also non-fiction writing about place and landscape.
I enjoy working with writers, whether they are taking the first tentative steps or writing with confidence and getting their work published. Each student takes a unique journey from enrolment to graduation and it’s a great privilege to play a part in it.
Anyone interested in studying creative writing needs to read. It’s not just about reading for pleasure, but reading as a writer. You must develop a curiosity about how a poem is made and how it achieves its effect.
Much of my teaching happens in workshops, where students write there and then in response to a prompt or exercise of some kind. It’s an informal, collaborative style of teaching and learning where everyone has something to contribute. I like the word ‘workshop’ because it’s a reminder that there is craft involved, and techniques to be learnt and practised.
Reading and discussing contemporary and 20th century poems is a core activity for my undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Jean Sprackland joined the Department of English as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in September 2009 and became Reader in Poetry in 2012. In 2016 she completed a PhD in Creative Writing and became Professor of Poetry.
Reading Poetry I
Poetry Workshop
Reading Place 2
Rachel Mann: The Representation of Fecundity and Barrenness in Nineteenth Century Women's Poetry: a critical and creative scrutiny of a Christian-Feminist Poetics (completed).
Natalie Burdett: Metaphor in the Midlands: Theorising Poetry and Prose, Place and Politics
Rachel Davies: A tight grasp on to the apron strings: the parent in a poet’s work
Sarah Jasmon: Lost and Found: Mapping the Canals of Manchester
Kim Moore: All the Men I Never Married: Poetry and Everyday Sexism
Zaffar Kunial: Poetry as Wavering
Jennie Bailey: For Rochdale: Reading, Mapping, and Writing Place in the Era of the Northern Powerhouse
Lancaster University: MA Creative Writing (2011-2014)
Royal Holloway, University of London: MA Creative Writing (2012-2015)
D. Anphimiadi (2021). Why I No Longer Write Poems.
J. Sprackland (2018). Green Noise. Jonathan Cape.
J. Sprackland (2015). New Manchester Alphabet An Illustrated Collection of New Poetry 2015. Manchester Metropolitan University.
G. Eliasson, F. Grytten, MO. Conghaile, D. Picard, MZ. Saclioglu, et al. I. Schulze, R. Simic, J. Sprackland, O. Tokarczuk, M. Unge. (2013). Elsewhere. Comma Press.
S. O'Brien, J. Sprackland, T. Cooke (2013). Ellipsis 1. Comma Press.
J. Sprackland (2013). Sleeping Keys. Random House.
J. Sprackland (2013). Strands. Random House.
J. Sprackland (2007). Tilt. Random House UK.
M. Coe, J. Sprackland (2005). Our Thoughts Are Bees. Wordplay Press.
J. Sprackland, . Sprackland (2003). Hard water. Jonathan Cape.
J. Sprackland (1997). Tattoos for Mother's Day.
H. Busck-Nielsen, J. Sprackland (2019). Poetry. Critical Survey. 31(1-2), pp.196-198.
J. Sprackland (2014). Those Winter Sundays. Writing in Education. 63,
J. Sprackland (2013). Moving The Piano/It Occurs To My Mother That She Might Be Dead. Poem. 1(3), pp.54-55.
D. Buttress, J. Sprackland, CS. Bennett (2001). Poetry. Critical Survey. 13(3),
J. SPRACKLAND (2021). In the Castle. In: Hollow Palaces. Liverpool University Press, pp.69-69.
J. Sprackland (2021). Purification. In: Divining Dante. Recent Work Press,
J. Sprackland (2021). In Praise of Emptiness. In: WHY I WRITE POETRY.. Nine Arches Press,
J. Sprackland (2020). Sands Immense: on the trail of Herman Melville. In: Sandscapes: Writing the British seaside. Palgrave,
J. Sprackland (2016). Lock Songs.
J. Sprackland (2015). Three poems.
J. Sprackland Hands.
J. Sprackland (2015). Two poems.
J. Sprackland (2011). In the Mud.
Tattoos for Mothers Day (Spike, 1997) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Hard Water (Cape, 2003) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award for Poetry. Her third collection, Tilt, won the 2007 Costa Poetry Award.
She was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets in 2004.
Jean is also author of Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach, which won the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012.
Jean is a Trustee of the Poetry Archive.