Professor Kimberly Campanello

Profile

I am the author of the poetry-object and durational performance MOTHERBABYHOME (zimZalla, 2019), two further poetry collections, and two poetry pamphlets.

This year Bloomsbury Poetry published my collection An Interesting Detail. My debut novel Use the Words You Have is the inaugural title from Somesuch Editions, the imprint of BAFTA and Oscar-winning production company Somesuch.

I am an inaugural Markievicz Award winner from Ireland's Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for (S)worn State(s) (The Salvage Press, 2024) with Dimitra Xidous and Annemarie Ní Churreáin and an Arts Council Ireland Literature Project Award for sorry that you were not moved (2022), an interactive digital poetry publication in conversation with Calvino’s Invisible Cities created in collaboration with Christodoulos Makris and Fallow Media. In 2022 I received an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award to foster my writing on chronic illness/disability.

I am currently creating a new version of Dante’s Commedia. It has been supported by the Devers Program in Dante Studies at the University of Notre Dame. My essay ‘Three Beginnings: Versioning Dante’s Commedia’ and my Canto 1 Inferno appeared in the winter issue of Poetry Ireland Review. Extracts from this work-in-progress, This Knot: a new version of Dante’s Commedia with the poet K, have appeared or are forthcoming in Firmament, Poetry Ireland Review, Still Point and Notre Dame Review.

See my personal website for updates on publications and appearances.

Research interests

My interests include poetry (especially visual and innovative poetry), the use of archival material, ekphrasis, translation, and the long poem. I also write prose.

• (S)worn State(s)
• MOTHERBABYHOME

Qualifications

• PhD in Creative Writing, Middlesex University
• MA in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Cincinnati
• MFA in Creative Writing, University of Alabama
• BA in English and French, summa cum laude, Butler University
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice

Professional memberships

• National Association of Writers in Education
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Society of Authors
• Trustee of Ledbury Poetry

Student education

I was inaugural Programme Leader for the BA English Literature with Creative Writing (2018–2021). I was previously the School’s first Practice Research Lead.

From August 2025 I will lead Poetry@Leeds, our hub for research, teaching and impact in poetry.

I teach poetry at all levels in the School.

I am currently on sabbatical in the academic year 2024-25.

I am not currently considering PhD applications due to capacity.

Research groups and institutes

• Creative Writing at Leeds
• Poetry Centre
• Centre for Practice Research in the Arts
• Leeds Centre for Dante Studies
• Medical Humanities Research Group

Current postgraduate researchers

• Jon Gilbert