Jen Hadfield’s poetry is infused with the spirit of Shetland, where she lives. Her collection of poems, Nigh-No-Place, for which she became the youngest ever poet to receive the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, is peppered with Shetland dialect and deeply rooted in the landscape.
Often the places Jen writes about are the wilder ones, busy with flora and fauna. As she says “I’m most at home using the macro-lens: focussed on the life of rockpools, or the tiny complex flora of the bog on my favourite circular walk here in Shetland… I’m glad [Nigh-No-Place] raised awareness of Shetland’s dialect and culture.” Sometimes branded an ‘eco-poet’ she explores her themes across a range of media beyond poetry, including sculpture, ex-votos and the novel.