Susannah Bolton

North Uist’s Susannah Bolton is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice reflects a rich blend of personal history, cultural exploration and a deep connection to the places she has called home. She is drawn to poetry by its ‘sense of play,’ and ‘being allowed to break out of sentences’, and loves the opportunity it affords to ‘choose how many layers to hide the truth in.’

Asked if she always wanted to be a poet she replies ‘When I was eight, my sister and I made a pact that we would publish books together and I would be the writer because of my handwriting… I also dreamed of being an accountant, so maybe [being] a freelance artist and poet ticks all the boxes’. Bolton is influenced by ‘Leonor Antunes’ and Lauren Gault’s translations of research into art,’ which ‘really motivate [her] to burrow into [her] interests’, and she dreams ‘to write poems as deft as Lavinia Singer’s’.

‘Writing new poetry feels like a chance for time travel’

When considering the highlights of her poetry journey thus far Bolton cites collaborative exchanges – producing a pamphlet with a close friend, and ‘the incredible experience of [her] poetry being sung as a choral score’. She sees her involvement in A Poet in Every Port as a valuable opportunity to connect the deep history of poetry tradition of North Uist with new writing, allowing her to ‘dance between languages and make something that makes sense to the people and land here’.