Hi! I’m Janine. I’m a BBC New Generation Thinker, writer, and academic working across forms — poems, non-fiction, and radio.
I’m interested in how we feel about what (and who) we read. My work explores how emotions like nostalgia, ambivalence, and love shape the ways we interpret identity and culture, in everything from Hollywood cinema to pop music, from melodramatic novels to real historical events.
My last poetry collection explored sentimentality, my last teaching project examined empathy, my PhD thesis explored racial ambiguity, and now I’m working on a non-fiction book about uncertainty (as part of the HarperCollins Author Academy).
You might have heard me on BBC Radio 3 or 4, on programmes like Free Thinking, The Essay, Woman’s Hour, and Great Lives. I’ve written for The Guardian and the Young Vic Theatre. My academic research — on what icons like Grace Jones, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and even professional wrestlers have taught me about reading and interpretation — has been published by Bloomsbury, Palgrave Macmillan, and Routledge.
When I’m not teaching literature at the University of York, I work as a freelance writer, workshop facilitator, and mentor. I help creatives, researchers, and small businesses share their ideas in ways that feel right for them.
How are we feeling, today?
Sentimental and nostalgic…
Read the story behind my poetry collection, Sometimes Real Love Comes Quick & Easy, a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. (There’s a mixtape and poems about being a mum, wrestling, Amy Winehouse and first crushes.)
I want to slow down and reflect…
Read my Substack. It’s a slow, reflective newsletter that drifts through language and feeling — One Word at a Time…
I’d love to listen to something…
Grab a cuppa, and immerse yourself in some radio, including my Radio 3 essay on girlhood, coming of age, and reading.
I’m enjoying this vibe!
Actually, I just want the facts, Janine, plain and simple.
No problem. Here’s my academic CV.