Lucy Lepchani - biography

Lucy Lepchani’s poetry is as likely to still the air with a serene sonnet as to whip up a storm with an invocation, or challenge the ways of the world with an edgy rant. Her ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt’ tones celebrate everyday subjects with a twist of political insight and abstract point of view - in rhymes to raise or rip your heart.
Lucy was born in Bromley to a Cornish mother and an immigrant father or Sikkimese origin.
Currently living in Devon, and following an unconventional, reasonably-well-traveled, mother-of-four, starving-in-the-garret, arty background, Lucy eventually decided to return to writing: a vocation briefly taken up years before, but abandoned to attend to the children, the bills, and all those other things.

She has since had poems, stories, and essays published in several magazines and anthologies. In 2004 she won second prize in the biennial Asham Literary Awards, in 2005 won first prize in the Chelsea Flower Show poetry competition, and was runner up in London Art’s Art of Love poetry competition. She performs regularly at local events and venues, and has performed at festivals including Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, Larmer Tree Festival, Ways With Words at Dartington, Torbay Poetry Festival, The Electric Picnic and several others.
Lucy also sometimes exhibits her poems in visual media; occasionally performs with poet Mim Darlington in the duo ‘The Honey Tongues’ and with Dartmoor based collective ‘Moor Poets’.

Her Poetry CD ‘The Wisdom of Bees’ is funded by Arts Council England. She has also produced a chapbook called A Poet’s Manifesto.


Educational Work.

Lucy designs and facilitates dynamic poetry and creative writing workshops & classes that also might draw upon skills from drama, art, comic-strip, folklore, myths, and experiences in the natural world.  She has worked in schools with children at KS2 and above, with youth and community groups, with individuals, and for adult education groups.
She is primarily concerned with her learners experiencing the joy of creativity, and with empowering each individual’s sense of ‘voice’. This approach establishes an effective and productive ‘sense of play’ in the learning environment.
Lucy's academic and prior professional background is in Community & Performing Arts, Media, Learning Development, Counselling, and from having worked for OfSted. She currently works freelance, and through the agencies DAISI (Devon Arts In Schools Initiative) and Apples and Snakes. She is also a tutor with the Workers Education Association.
She has also been involved in projects for her local, rural, poetry professional development network ‘Moor Poets’, including co-editing their second printed anthology and co-ordinating production of the group’s CD anthology ‘Uncharted’.

She is married to artist and designer Sean Hellman and lives in Devon.

‘The Dart in August’  ‘Moor Poets vol. 1’, summer 2003
'The Monarch' short story, publ. in anthology 'Shoe Fly Baby'(Bloomsbury). Second prize, Asham Literary Awards, 2003/4.
‘Bone Hill Rocks’ poetry/photography Moor Poets touring exhibition, autumn/winter.
'Emma's World' publ. 'My Weekly' magazine, October 2004
‘First Visit to Pantrhedyn’ text poem, short-listed for ‘Art Of Love’ poetry exhibition, shown at Oxo Tower Gallery, London, Feb. 2005.
‘Altar for the Muse’ and ‘Sacred Space’, poetry /mixed media, Mythic Garden Sculpture Exhibition, Devon, summer 2005.
‘The Ballad of Chelsea Flower Show’. First Prize, Chelsea Flower Show Poetry Competition, summer 2005
'Let us not speak…” and ‘The Gardener’; poems commissioned and performed for poetry walk, Ways With Words Festival, Dartington. July 2005.
‘Moonbathing’ and ‘Song of the Moor’, Moor Poets vol. 2, summer 2005.
 ‘Landscapes’ and ‘And the Bees’, Sentinel Quarterly magazine, Dec. 2005
‘Brewing’, Acumen magazine, January 2006.
‘A Spotters Guide to Sculpting and Sculptors’ collection of poetry, displayed in large sculpted wooden book (made by artist Sean Hellman) for Mythic Garden Sculpture Exhibition, summer 2006.
‘Waiting for News’ Acumen magazine, January 2007
'Immigrants, Migrants, Native Species' exhibition, Mythic Garden Sculpture Exhibition, Stone Lane Gardens, Devon. Summer 2007
'Seeing the Woods Through the Trees' poetry with photography by Sean Hellman, High Moorland Visitor Centre, Dartmoor. Oct - Dec 2007
'Grandma Has Sewn Thunder' published 'Poetrybay - online magazine for the 21st Century' autumn 2007.
Essay 'Sacred Space'  published in the anthology 'A Women's Guide to saving the World'  (The Book Guild, 2008) edited by Karen Eberhardt Shelton

I have also had published, a number of short articles, reviews and contributions for magazines and radio programmes.

Prizes:

First prize, Wells Festival of Literature Int. Poetry Competition 2008, for poem 'An Armada of Aunties'.

First prize, Chelsea Flower Show poetry competition 2005, for  poem 'The Ballad of Chelsea Flower Show'.

Second prize. Asham Literary awards 2004. For short story 'The Monarch''

Self-published poetry collection booklets & CDs:

A Spotters Guide to Sculptors and Sculpture. Summer 2006
A Poet's Manifesto and other poems. Summer 2007
Seeing the Wood Through the Trees. Autumn/winter 2007
The Wisdom of Bees, 'CD chapbook'. November 2007 (Funded by Arts Council England)

Plus occasional or regular open-mike spots at :

'Uncut Poets', Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter;
'Poetry Under Candlelight' Picture House, Exeter; '
The Bit On The Side', Palace Theatre, Paignton;
and 'One Night Stanza', Barrel House, Totnes.