Sean Borodale & Alun Hughes
Words as incantation. Poetry as process. Making as an invocation.
Poets Sean Borodale and Alun Hughes come together in a collaboration that harnesses the rhythmic intensity of language and the transformative act of making. This project, set for publication in 2026, begins in the raw material of creation—the shaping of words, the forging of sound, the alchemy of text in motion.
Borodale, known for his fieldwork-driven poetry, and Hughes, whose poetic interventions cut across boundaries of space and form, join forces to explore making as a ritual, a craft, a spell of articulation. Expect a work that breathes with immediacy, where the spoken and written word converge in a space charged with presence and potential.
Stay tuned for details—something visceral, something made, is coming.
Find out more about both poets below.
Sean Borodale works as an artist, writer, poet. His work combines print, theatre, writing, installation, performance, film, voice, sound, often expanding and testing a situated writing process. He studied and later taught at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (where he was also until recently Hon. Research Fellow in print and text). Previously, he worked at a foundry casting large-scale bronzes for artists. He has four collections of poetry published by Jonathan Cape. His first, Bee Journal (2012), was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and Costa Book Award. He was selected as a Granta New Poet in 2012 and a Poetry Book Society Next Generation Poet in 2014. Mighty Beast, a documentary poem for BBC Radio 3 about cattle markets and modern farming practices won the Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Feature or Documentary. His topographical poem Notes for an Atlas (Isinglass 2007), written whilst walking around London, was adapted and directed as a performance by Mark Rylance for London’s Southbank Festival Hall.
Alun Hughes is a poet and non-fiction writer. In 2021, he was digital writer in residence with Dialect at the Cotswold Water Park and won third prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Competition. In 2022, he was shortlisted for the Laurie Lee Prize. His poetry pamphlet Down the Heavens, is published by Yew Tree Press. Somewhere Somewhere, an album of nine poems from the collection to original soundtracks, made with the band Lensmen, is available at lensmen.bandcamp.com. His work has been published by Ambient Receiver, Amplify Stroud, Steel Jackdaw and as Salmon Paths on Substack. He is currently working on his next collections, making poetry films and developing and organising community storytelling events and creative writing workshops. His writing is based in nature-based practice and indigenous perspectives.
