Harry Josephine Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney, who now lives in Edinburgh, where they co-founded the spoken word events series Inky Fingers and co-directs the live art platform Anatomy. They hold an MA in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School, and are studying for a PhD at Stirling University.
Their pamphlets Visa Wedding (2012) and Oam (2013) are published by Stewed Rhubarb, and they have also produced visual poetry objects and digital texts including Farmform (2014), We Are Rain (2014), and Casual Games for Casual Hikers (2015). 2015 saw the publication of the narrative verse sequence Drone in Our Real Red Selves (Vagabond Voices). Their full collection publications, Tonguit (Freight Books 2015) and The Games (Out-Spoken Press 2018) were shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, with Tonguit also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
Giles has been a writer in residence for 3rd Ring Out, Govanhill Baths Community Trust, the Crichton Carbon Centre and the Nevis Land Partnership, and in 2015-16 was Reader in Residence for West Lothian Libraries.
They were BBC Scotland Slam Champion in 2009, and won the IdeasTap National Poetry Competition in 2012. They are a founder member of the Shift Collective of spoken word artists. Their theatre productions, often combining spoken word with interaction, sound and projection, have toured the UK and Europe, including festivals such as Forest Fringe, Sprint, SPILL and CrisisART. They have featured at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the StAnza Poetry Festival and New York’s legendary Bowery Poetry Club. Their one-to-one show What We Owe was listed in the Guardian’s “Best of the Edinburgh Fringe” round-up in the “But is it art?” section. They toured the multimedia poetry show Drone which featured at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019.
