Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada, in a family from Northern Ireland.
She came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition. Her pamphlet, My Shrink is Pregnant, was a winner in Live Canon’s 2019 pamphlet competition. She was published in Primers Volume One by Nine Arches Press, and her first full-length collection, The Attitudes, came out in 2021, also from Nine Arches.
A member of the two poetry groups Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and Red Door Poets, Katie is also singer-songwriter in the band A Woman in Goggles.
Click here to read transcript of interview with Katie by FRP member Annie Fisher
About The Attitudes:
“These poems strike a pose, daring you not to fall in love with them.” Rishi Dastidar
“Katie Griffiths brings a mercurial inventiveness to the serious concerns at her poetry’s core – belief, selfhood and the soul.” Moniza Alvi
“The magic of Katie Griffiths’ poetry is its astonishing innovativeness alongside an ancient and elemental ‘bassline’. The resulting music, with hints of the Bible and old adages, is surprising, exuberant, original – each line quivering with intensity.” Kathryn Maris
“Katie Griffiths’ collection is a packet of sparklers! …These are exciting poems, often mysterious, disquieting, or out to subvert expectations, but with a light tread. “ Alex Josephy, London Grip
“There were poems that challenged me, which guided me through wordplay and allusions, resulting in an illuminating pay-off. There were poems that warmed me up, ones that made me reflect deeply and giggle in glee. So rarely can a collection seamlessly shift in tone and content, oscillating between such variety of topics, and still feel like a cohesive work of art.” Emily Walker
About My Shrink is Pregnant:
“There is grace in this almost ritualised account of interplay, an acceptance of mess, and a final sharing. This is an unusual, vividly involving set of poems. “ Alison Brackenbury, Nine Arches Press Blogspot
“So, can it ever be possible to talk to a shrink who is pregnant? Katie Griffiths’ collection is bold and unsparing in examining this possibility; while the lyric voice is held by the client, Griffiths has a subtle and engaging way of suggesting the confusion of the shrink herself.” Rhian Williams, Spamzine.co.uk
The Attitudes is available at link and My Shrink is Pregnant is available at link:
Read an example of Katie’s work. below: