Who is Sheila …
Sheila was raised in a working class household where work was expected of her at an early age. Almost from infancy she spent her childhood caring for her siblings; she was taken out of school at fifteen with no qualifications, so she could help out with the family finances.
Later Sheila moved to the Wirral and worked at ITV. This is where her main career evolved from tele-sales at the Liverpool Echo, to working as the advertising sales trainer in Bermuda for the national newspaper, the Royal Gazette, to running the classified advertising department at the BBC for the Radio Times.
After a change in her domestic situation, she embarked on a BA Honours in English & Media Studies at Anglia Polytechnic University, and then an MA in Creative Writing from Exeter University. It was during this course that Sheila’s interest in poetry developed. Her travels, her love of nature, her past work and her life experiences have woven their way into much of her poetry.
Her poetry has been published in several journals including but not limited to Acumen, Obsessed With Pipework, Orbis, Survision, Dreamcatcher, La Piccioletta Barca, Domestic Cherry, Broadsheet and Dreich. She was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, awarded first prize in the Welsh International Poetry Competition, the Yeovil Literary Prize, and Happenstance, and has been placed in many other competitions.
Her three poetry collections are: Paper Boats, the Burning of Teignmouth and Shaldon 1690 (Indigo Dreams), an account of the last invasion on English soil; While I Was Sleeping (CloseToTheEdgeBooks), based on a true story of forced adoption; Patterns of All Made Things, (Hen Run), based on the Finnish nation’s rise from female subjugation to emancipation.