Dr Holly Pester
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Email
hpester@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 874029
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Location
5NW.4.7, Colchester Campus
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Academic support hours
Wednesday 9am-11am
Profile
Biography
I am poet, novelist and scholar working in experimental forms of fiction and poetry, with particular interest in the thematic areas of tenancy and the housing crisis. I have also published works of creative and critical writing in the field of contemporary poetics and on forms of practice-based research methodologies in the archive.
Qualifications
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I have a PhD in English from Birkbeck, University of London where I worked with Professor Carol Watts. My thesis (completed in 2014) was titled, 'Making Speech Matter: Recurring Mediations of Sound Poetics in the Contemporary Field'.
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Feminist experimental writing (poetry and prose)
Archive theory and forms of archive research
Innovative methods of practice-based research
Writing on and about and with dreams, hallucinations, daydreaming, voice, non-linguistic sounds, nonsense, body, sexuality, posture, radical politics
Current research
My current research is into lullabies as they relate to the body, voice, the politics of care.
Conferences and presentations
Latent Resources in Contemporary Poetry
Invited presentation, Conference, Poetics of the Commons, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 22/5/2019
Comic Timing in the Poetic Line
Conference, Gestures: writing that moves between, Manchester, United Kingdom, 15/2/2019
Drops, Pitches and Break in Civic Delivery
Keynote presentation, Conference, Sound and Silence, London, United Kingdom, 8/6/2018
Gossip and Plots
Invited presentation, Keynote presentation, Event, Witchy Methodologies, London, United Kingdom, 13/1/2017
Nervousness as Style
Invited presentation, Keynote presentation, Conference, Contemporary Poetry: Thinking and Feeling, Plymouth, United Kingdom, 22/5/2016
'The Epistimological Tactics of Fan Fiction'
'Hannah Weiner and Clairvoyancy as Experimental Method'
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Writing Structures (LT209)
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Reading, Writing and Doing Poetry (LT381)
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Independent Creative Writing Project (LT832)
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Creative Writing Workshop (LT911)
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The Writer's Toolkit (LT191)
Current supervision
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Film Studies (Creative Practice)
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 10/2/2025
Degree subject: Psychoanalytic Studies
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 1/9/2023
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 12/4/2023
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 15/11/2022
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 27/4/2020
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 24/7/2019
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 5/7/2019
Publications
Journal articles (3)
Pester, H., (2019). The Politics of Delivery (Against Poet-Voice). Poetry Review. 109 (Summer 2019), 67-78
Pester, H., (2017). Archive Fan-Fiction: experimental archive research methodologies and feminist epistemological tactics. Feminist Review. 115 (1), 114-129
Pester, H., (2016). Rebellious daughter: Reading Adrienne Rich. Poetry Review. 106 (2), 49-56
Books (3)
Pester, H., (2024). The Lodgers. Granta. 9781783789832
Pester, H., (2021). Comic Timing. Granta. 1783786868. 9781783786862
Pester, H., (2015). go to reception and ask for Sara in red felt tip. Bookworks. 1906012660. 978 1 906012 66 3
Book chapters (5)
Pester, H., (2019). Distributed and Entangled Posture in Cathy Wagner’s My New Job and Nervous Device. In: Poetry and Work: Work in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Poetry. Editors: Luker, E. and Lindsay Walton, J., . Palgrave Macmillan. 978-3-030-26124-5
Pester, H., (2017). Heavy Clay Soil. In: Protest Stories of Resistance. Editors: Page, R., . Comma Press. 1905583737. 9781905583737
Pester, H., (2016). The Body and the Page in Poetry Readings as Remembrance of Composition. In: Memory in the Twenty-First Century: New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences. Editors: Groes, S., . Springer. 271- 275. 978-1-349-56642-6
Pester, H., (2016). Songs of Rest: An Intervention in the Complex Genre of the Lullaby. In: The Restless Compendium. Springer International Publishing. 113- 118. 9783319452630
Pester, H. and Wilkes, J., (2016). The Poetics of Descriptive Experience Sampling. In: The Restless Compendium. Springer International Publishing. 51- 57. 9783319452630
Other (6)
Pester, H., International Worker's Day. Poetry Review(Winter 2017),Poetry Society
Pester, H., (2021).'People Who Live Here',Granta Online
Pester, H., (2019).Poems for Idle Workers,BBC Radio 4 / Reduced Listening
Pester, H., (2018).Comic Timing. Granta,Granta
Pester, H., (2017).Three Poems. The Believer
Pester, H., (2016).Common Rest,Test Centre
Grants and funding
2023
The Hungry Human Project Essex
School of Advanced Study, University of London (Funder)
Being Human Festival: The Hungry Human Project.
University of Essex (QR Impact Fund)
Contact
Academic support hours:
Wednesday 9am-11am
