Introduction to Natalie Whittaker and SK Grout

Text of alice hiller’s introduction: A very warm welcome to this Voicing our Silences workshop with SK Grout and Natalie Whittaker.   Every time I read the poets I’ll be introducing, I do so with doubled excitement.  Both for the pleasure of encountering their poems again, and the anticipation of hearing them performed and discussed.  Prepping this workshop absolutely gave me that joy, partly as a result of how SK Grout and Natalie Whittaker write the female body as an act of love.  They each bring intense tenderness to the page. Turning first to SK Grout, widely published, and highly active both as a poet and editor, (she/they) grew up in Aotearoa/New Zealand, lived in Germany, and now splits her time as best she can between London and Auckland. Their first micro chapbook to be female is to be interrogated was published in 2018.  Their second, What love would smell like, launched wonderfully in December 21 with V. Press. 

With sensuous, interrogatory, playfulness, its poems brightened and warmed midwinter for SK Grout’s many fans in the northern hemisphere. Catching this light-filled mood, ‘Your Name’, reveals “It is always summer when we are in love”, then locates this statement relative to one girl reaching the point where she is able to love another – “I draw my hands along the viola’s curves, the violet’s tears”.  We soon learn “what love would smell like if it had a scent:/ light, sweet, blistered pleasure –”. This acuteness of texture afterwards lets us discover kisses as “lime-salt rebels,/ [...] unexpected, economic”.  In ‘Two girls peeling apples’, the idea of bliss as exclusively heteronormative is conclusively denied.  Under the sky’s “saffron rhythm” the poem answers “Who would build heaven, when this space exists?”

You’ll be able to read more about SK Grout on the Voicing Our Silences website, and crucially follow links to buy their work, as is also the case for Natalie Whittaker. A poet and secondary school teacher from South East London, Natalie’s debut pamphlet Shadow Dogs was published by ignition press in 2018. Her poems have appeared widely in UK magazines and anthologies. Like SK Grout’s work, Natalie’s manifests a creative and aesthetic fearlessness in telling the less told story, and speaking into silences that for centuries have folded themselves around women’s bodies. In Tree, published in the spring of 2021 by Verve Press, Natalie gives witness to what happened when medical complications led to the still-birth of a longed-for baby, and its toughest of psychological aftermaths. 

Dedicated to Sammy Whittaker, Tree begins and ends in blossom time, but passes through the dark winter of bereavement. The natural world shapes its journey, from the discovery of the “bare branches” of “faulty umbilical cords/ failing to implant the sky”. As waves of sorrow, the poems ebb in and out of Tree’s central loss. They enter the church hall where “broken moth women” meet.  They itemise the three-fold ‘departures’ of leaving behind the hospital, the funeral – and the bereaved parents’ former relationship. The “frozen beach” of the stillbirth is located between two points of the 24 hour clock. To speak of these experiences is nonetheless a transformative act of witness, which will help many.  Reading both sequences of poems is enormously powerful – as you’ll see when Natalie Whittaker and SK Grout share their extraordinary work. If anything feels difficult, there are links to support on the website, but for now I’ll hand you over to the joint stars of this show.

Please click the link below to watch the captioned Youtube video. You should have a pen and paper ready for the prompt.

If you need support around stillbirth the link to SANDS is here.

SK Grout and Natalie Whittaker Voicing Our Silences Workshop, performance and prompt.

About Natalie Whittaker

Natalie Whittaker  is a poet and secondary school teacher from South East London. She also offers freelance editing services for poets looking to put together a first pamphlet or collection. Natalie's debut pamphlet, Shadow Dogs, was published by ignition press in 2018. Her second pamphlet, Tree, was published by Verve Poetry Press in 2021. Natalie was a London Library Emerging Writer 2020 – 2021.

Editing Services by Natalie Whittaker for debut pamphlets and first collections: If you would like to receive detailed feedback on your poetry, Natalie provides a freelance editing service. This is particularly suited to poets looking to put together a pamphlet or first collection. For more information please contact Natalie by direct message on Twitter @natalie_poetry'.

About SK Grout

SK GROUT (she/they) is a writer, editor and poet. She grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand, lived in Germany and now splits her time between London and Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau. She holds a post-graduate degree in creative writing from City, University of London, and is a Feedback Editor for Tinderbox Poetry. Her poetry and reviews are widely published in the US, UK, Europe and the Pacific, including Cordite Poetry Review, dialogist, Glass and Finished Creatures. She was 2nd in the Ambit Poetry Competition 2020. Her poetry annals micro chapbook is to be female is to be interrogated (2018). Her debut pamphlet, What love would smell like, is published with V. Press.
More information here: https://skgroutpoetry.wixsite.com/poetry