‘These are horrible, petty, mean-spirited little poems – my favourite kind’ - Times Literary Supplement
‘Poems that will keep you laughing so hard you forget to cry. Prickle heralds the arrival of a much-needed new voice in poetry, one that resembles a wake-up call in its startling brilliance.’ - Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight
‘‘The world of Prickle opens and you are transfixed. If this were a TV show, each poem would be an episode offering new insights into the mind of Rachel Cleverly, whether awkward or thoughtful.’ - Yomi Sode
Rachel Cleverly is a Rachel is a poet, playwright and producer. Her debut pamphlet, Prickle, was published by flipped eye in 2025 and was shortlisted in the Michael Marks Awards.
She has trained as a writer and theatre maker with the Royal Court, Soho Theatre, the Old Vic, the Barbican Centre and the BBC. Her writing has been longlisted in the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, shortlisted in the UEA New Forms Award and commended three times in the Winchester Poetry Prize.
Rachel is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, and has delivered workshops and events as a producer and facilitator with organisations such as the National Centre for Writing, The Poetry Society and the Southbank Centre, as well as working as a reader for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and Paines Plough. She recently curated an evening of love poetry, read by actors, performed in Somerset House.
She currently works at the National Literacy Trust, where she manages Inside Stories with Audible, developing new writing for audio with young offenders in custody. She is available for commissions, performances and residencies.
For more information, contact rachelcleverlywrites@gmail.com
Photography by Lola Webster.