About Me

Welcome to Judi Sutherland’s website.

I was born in Stoke on Trent to Geordie parents, spent some time as a child in Northern Ireland, and since then have lived all over England from Sussex to Durham, as paid employment has dictated. I trained in Microbiology and Biochemistry at the Universities of Leeds and Nottingham respectively then pursued a career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, developing new medicines.

I obtained my MA in Creative Writing in 2012 at Royal Holloway, University of London, where I was awarded the Margaret Hewson Prize. My poetry is mainly concerned with place and belonging, and I have an interest in landscape, history and mythology. My new book Following Teisa was written between 2014 and 2020, when I was living in Barnard Castle, County Durham.

I am currently living in Malahide, North County Dublin, Ireland, with my husband and two rescue cats, where I am writing poems about my new surroundings – Fingal – the Land of the Fair Strangers.

Following Teisa, a poetry journey down the River Tees, is available from my publisher The Book Mill or from Amazon, The Book Depository or Wordery.

My pamphlet of poems, entitled The Ship Owner’s House, is still available direct from me or from Vane Women Press.

Recent Posts

A Year Later

I haven’t been updating this blog regularly. My mojo has been missing, and writing has taken a bit of a back seat. Since last summer, I’ve been seriously ill, but it wasn’t until a few days before Christmas that I finally got a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I have written about my experiences so far in my articles for North East Bylines. I’ve also written a few poems but I am stalwartly NOT writing about this disease. Other poets write misery poetry. I’m not sure that’s for me. Maybe with the soft focus of hindsight, if I get through this.

Being immunocompromised has kept me in my own personal lockdown over the last few months. I’ve gone nowhere except to the hospital for my chemotherapy, and to the Tesco click and collect. I already know that I need further treatment, and I’m waiting to hear what that will be, but it will probably ruin the summer.

We are still in Malahide, by the beautiful beach, but I haven’t seen much of Ireland since we got here almost three years ago.

  1. What We Are Doing On Our Holidays Leave a reply
  2. Who IS She? Leave a reply
  3. “Fair Teisa’s Winding Stream Invites my Lays” Leave a reply
  4. Psychogeography Leave a reply
  5. Find Your Byline Leave a reply
  6. Wildgoose Leave a reply
  7. Writing in the Pandemic Leave a reply
  8. Ninety Miles and More 1 Reply
  9. The World Is Too Much With Us Leave a reply