Polly Bull

Polly Bull is a poet and writer living, working and loving in London. Outside In from Wordville Press is their first published poetry collection. Polly has a PhD in the history of reading and gender from the University of London. A regular at poetry nights such as Celine's Salon, Poetry LGBT and Speakeasy, their poetry draws on family memory, loss and personal and collective growth.

Polly was born in Basingstoke, UK, and grew up in Orange County, California. Their Anglo-American background informs their work, with memory snapshots of Britain and America featuring consistently in their poems.

Polly identifies as non-binary and some of their poems contain overt or underlying queer themes. Polly is out and proud when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation and wants to improve trans and non-binary visibility, representation and empowerment.

They are also open about their experience of mental distress and encourage honest conversations about mental health in order to dislodge the stigma surrounding psychological struggles. They believe more compassion and understanding is needed for those experiencing mental ill health.

Working in publishing, Polly specialises in content management and design. Their first career was in the field of academic history, where they specialised in eighteenth-century gender and reading habits. Inspired by eighteenth-century readers' devotion to books and having studied the history of book production, Polly changed career paths in 2016 to focus on publishing.

Outside In (published by Wordville Press) came out in March 2021. Exploring memories of Polly's English/American upbringing and tragedies that led to an awakening, this charming and evocative anthology juxtaposes the ridiculous and the heart-breaking, with a twist of hope.