Meet our Poet in Residence

Dan Simpson is a writer, performer, producer, and educator. He makes highly engaging and contemporary work that is entertaining, smart, and funny on subjects including science and technology; history and place; art and geek culture; people and poetry. 

A former Canterbury Laureate, Dan has been Poet-in-Residence at Glastonbury Festival, Waterloo Station, National Trust Stowe, and Imperial College London. His two collections of poetry are Applied Mathematics and Totally Cultured (Burning Eye Books) - with the latter touring to 15 UK cities. Dan has performed around the world including at Glastonbury Festival, Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam, Sofar Sounds Auckland, and on the BBC. He has taken five solo shows to Edinburgh Fringe and won commissions from Southbank Centre, Free Word, and Corinium Museum.

Dan creates pioneering work using crowd-sourced and roaming poetry for organisations such as the Royal Academy of Arts, National Museum of Scotland, Imperial College, and the European Commission. He is an experienced producer of spoken word shows, co-producing poetry versus comedy gig Stand Up & Slam and worst-poet-wins spectacle The Anti-Slam. Often working in scientific contexts, Dan has appeared at popular science events and festivals - and is half of Dr. Illingworth and Mr. Simpson, devising interdisciplinary science communication events and projects.

An accomplished educator, Dan is an enthusiastic, insightful, and adaptable workshop leader. He convenes and lectures on the 'Writing for the Spoken Word' module at Canterbury Christ Church University, and delivers primary and secondary school classes around the U.K. - including work for First Story, Barbican Centre, and Apples and Snakes. He also runs both creative writing and professional development sessions for adults.