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Originally from Yorkshire, I've lived in London since 1998 and am a member of the Forest Poets Stanza in Walthamstow. I've had three poetry pamphlets published by the Paekakariki Press (Euphrasy, Walthamstow and To London), and my first full collection is due in 2025. I work for the charity Carers UK where for five years I coordinated an annual creative writing and photography competition.
In 2023 I was awarded 2nd prize in the Waltham Forest Poetry Competition and my poems have been highly commended in the Poetry Society Stanza Competition, the Gerard Rochford Poetry Prize, The York Mix Poetry for Chidren Competition and the Poetry on the Lake Competition, as well as being longlisted for the National Poetry Competition. They have also appeared in many anthologies and online and print magazines, as well as some more unusual places such as the World Championship Snooker programme and the Arsenal fanzine The Gooner!
To mark 1,000 sales of my Walthamstow and To London books, in 2019 I returned to my first (creative) love of photography and produced a series of prints of the poems and photos. Inspired by William Blake's etchings of his poems, during the past year I have also been working on a series of illustrations to incorporate my poems.
My most recent book, To London, was published in June 2017 and features illustrations by artist Kirsten Schmidt. It is available from Paekakariki Press, E17 Art House and Amazon. A second volume of To London will be available in 2024.
In early 2021 (in the middle of the third Covid 19 lockdown), award-winning young filmmaker Emmanuel Li made a short film, Moments In Margins, about the creative relationship between me and our elder child Sofia, who has produced a series of illustrations for my second book of London poems (due in late 2024).
Michael Shann Poetry
"Just a quick email to say what a pleasure it was to come across your Walthamstow book of poems, which I devoured on this autumn morning and I will be recommending to friends. I like the simplicity of your language (but filled with meaning and emotion and appreciation for life). As a fellow E17 resident it was wonderful to read so many poems inspired by our borough." Lulu (Nov 2021)