I was in the middle of a tour of my show about Northern women when the world went mad. I’m still being a poet and broadcaster though. Here’s an update on some stuff I’ve done lately/am doing:

Writing a show for the Ted Hughes Festival about an imagined encounter between the poet Ted Hughes and the comedian Bernard Manning (!)
I’ve been collaborating with photographer Colin Potsig on projects where we use my words and his images to explore things- initially fellow autistic people. Now other stuff, e.g the video above and:?https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XuNqyRIAACIArun9
I finished my collection of poems The Oscillations which is coming out with Nine Arches Press in February 2021?https://www.thebookseller.com/news/indie-press-nine-arches-publish-100th-book-followed-12-new-titles-1222677
My show “Bigger on the Inside” exploring neuordiversity and autism through the lens of Doctor Who was commissioned by, and performed at the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival in September 2020. Further outings are planned.?https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ezb3v2/acts/abdrj5
I presented a Pick of the Week for Radio 4 in May and have made some appearances on my favourite radio show Radio 3’s The Verb- including with a piece about how lockdown made me lose my sense of humour and how much I missed cafes:?https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h2kq
It sounds like I’ve been really busy. I’ve actually felt like this is the best rest I’ve had for years. I’ve seen friends, swum and sorted my flat out. I almost forget I used to do loads of stuff. As a reminder for me- this was a lovely profile of me by Hazel Davis that came out in the Before Times.?https://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/people/kate-fox-1-6291355

I’m also working on a project which will continue my celebration of Northern women “Where There’s Muck There’s Bras”. Details to be revealed when contract ?ink is dry! Check out the show’s website, here! Or check out the trailer for the touring solo version of the show here:

and our fabulous Oasister video here:

Short Bio

“Fabulous, feminist and funny”- Morning Star.

“Winning, witty and wise”- Acumen.

Kate Fox works mainly as a stand-up poet and as a broadcaster and speaker. As she points out on stage, if you say you’re a comedian who does poems, not many people will come and see you; whereas if you say you’re a poet who does comedy…still not many people will come and see you but at least you get Arts Council funding… She enjoys being a variety of things but has found it can make you hard to categorise. Basically she’s a writer and performer and due to her extensive work on the radio in the past few years, quite a few people do come and see her work after all.

That includes two comedy series called The Price of Happiness for Radio 4 about things she’s supposed to want but doesn’t and her current touring show “Where There’s Muck There’s Bras” about notable Northern women. She is a familiar radio voice, having presented Pick of the Week on Radio 4 and been a regular contributor to Radio 3’s The Verb, among many other broadcasts.

She has been Poet in Residence for the Great North Run, Glastonbury Festival and Radio 4’s Saturday Live. She has also performed her poetry on BBC1 and BBC2. She has supported acts including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hollie McNish, John Cooper Clarke and John Hegley and is a headline act in her own right.

She’s also a gentle activist and campaigner for the voices of Northerners, the working class, women and the neurodiverse to be heard; mainly by teaching and running workshops in schools and community groups -and by speaking, writing, raising awareness and tutting at injustice and inequality.

ps: I AM NOT THE KATE FOX THE SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGIST WHO WROTE WATCHING THE ENGLISH. NOT HER, NO. DO NOT GET IN TOUCH TO ASK ME TO TALK ABOUT WHY ENGLISH PEOPLE QUEUE AND DRINK TEA. THOUGH I HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS AND MANY OTHER THINGS.

Long Bio:?

Kate Fox is a writer, performer and broadcaster who sometimes describes herself as a stand-up poet. She has been a Poet in Residence on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run. She is a regular contributor to Radio 3’s The Verb and presenter of Radio 4’s “Pick of the Week”.?Radio 4 broadcast her two half hour comedy shows “The Price of Happiness” in 2015, and a second series in 2017. ?Her stand up spoken word show celebrating Northern women; “Where There’s Muck There’s Bras” sold out several theatres in the North of England when it toured after being commissioned by the Great Exhibition of the North in 2018. She is now working on a book of the show for a major publisher. ?Her new show “Bigger on the Inside” uses a stand up lecture format to explore the history of neurodiversity through a lens of Doctor Who and was commissioned by the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival in 2020. She is also currently writing a commissioned play about an imagined encounter between Ted Hughes and Bernard Manning for the Ted Hughes Festival.?

In 2017 she directed and co-wrote (with Hull collective Women of Words) a show called “Queens of the North”,? a commission from Hull 2017 and the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival.?

She has been commissioned to write and perform poems for BBC1 (Including 2014’s “Great North Passion” in South Shields and the Great North Run, 2011 and 2015), BBC2’s Daily Politics, Radio 3’s “The Verb”, 6Music and many Radio 4 shows and has performed at venues from Latitude to the Stand Comedy Club, the Soho Theatre to Oakland University, USA and Turku Literature Festival in Finland.

She trained as a radio journalist in 1998 with a Post Grad Diploma from Trinity and All Saints in Leeds and worked as a newsreader and reporter for stations including Galaxy and Metro. She has used her reporting skills as a “plenary poet”, summarising conferences in poem version, for organisations including the Arts Council, Creative Partnerships, New Writing North and the People’s Powerhouse. ?She also works as a presenter and onstage interviewer, recently having interviewed Jo Brand, Sarah Millican and Katherine May and toured theatres with “Yorkshire Vet” Julian Norton and “Yorkshire Shepherdess” Amanda Owen.

She won the Andrew Waterhouse Award from New Writing North in 2006, an Arts Council Time to Write award and in 2019, an ACE Developing Your Creative Practice Award. ?She won a K Blundell Trust grant from the Society of Authors. She has taught and facilitated numerous creative writing. performance and comedy workshops, including for the Arvon Foundation, First Story, Creative Partnerships and New Writing North. In 2009 she was the only writer ever to do a Cultural Leadership placement and researched writers’ work with young people. Publications include “Fox Populi” from Smokestack Books (2013),? pieces in Bloodaxes’s “Funny Peculiar, Funny Ha Ha” and the “Iron Book of Humorous Verse” and she has edited several anthologies of young writers work.?Her next collection “The Oscillations” will be published by Nine Arches in 2021 and she is currently on the Poetry Business’ Advanced Poetry course.

In 2018 she was awarded a?PhD in solo stand up performance, class, gender and Northernness by Leeds University and has published on Northernness, resistance and comedy in books and journals including Dead Ink’s Know Your Place, Comedy Studies journal and “Comedy and Resistance” published by Palgrave. She won a Graduate Student Award from the International Society of Humor Studies.?

Her activism often takes the form of writing, researching and performing shows which are subtly resistant. She describes herself as a neurodiversity activist and is on the steering group of the University of Kent’s Playing A/Part project researching how performance can illuminate the lives of autistic women. She declared “Lass War” on male-heavy representations of the Northern Powerhouse in a protest outside a Northern Powerhouse conference in 2017 and has spoken on several panels about how important it is to improve representations of neurodiversity, Northern Englishness and working classness in the arts and media.?

Some quick links:?

Recent poem: ?สล็อต 66 เครดิตฟรี

Link to Kate performing live from Hull 2017 on Woman’s Hour, talking Lass War & accents & performing a poem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gwfyq#t=33m35s

Lass War protest:?Some info

Kate Fox in the National Portrait Gallery:?Link to Portrait and Blurb about it.

Her two Radio 4 shows on iPlayer:?The Price of Happiness

Her book Fox Populi from Smokestack Press:?Buy here

A video poem about the importance of tea (commissioned by Yorkshire Festival):

A poem ITV filmed before she set off to be Glastonbury Festival Poet in Residence:?Here

Do get in touch with gig queries, questions, thoughts, kind words….

2 thoughts on “About”

Susi Pitura says:

March 13, 2017 at 11:57 pm

Kate
I tweeted you earlier – thanks for the reply. I’m an ex pat Hullensian lass, living in Essex. I’m training for the London marathon so saved the podcast (from my old school) as a treat for my long run today. What a treat! I may have been a bit tired/emotional but I genuinely wept at your stirring womanifesto and want to give copies to my nieces and maybe even the girls of St Mary’s College Hull. Happy to discuss how best to distribute so you don’t lose out.
Thanks for your work!
Susi Pitura
Susichapman@hotmail.co.uk

Steve says:

June 19, 2017 at 8:46 pm

Listened to the show on R4 today, brilliant. Really enjoyed it.

สล็อต 66 เครดิตฟรี

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NOT the social anthropologist. Though confusingly I did an ethnographic PhD.

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NOT the social anthropologist. Though confusingly I did an ethnographic PhD.