Bio
Susan Richardson is a Welsh ecopoet, performer and educator whose fourth collection of poetry, Words the Turtle Taught Me (Cinnmaon Press, 2018), themed around endangered marine species, emerged from her residency with the Marine Conservation Society and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. She also writes prose: her work of creative nonfiction, Where the Seals Sing (William Collins, 2022) is a deep dive into the world of Atlantic grey seals, exploring the threats they face and how we should live more sensitively alongside them. Susan has been writer-in-residence with both the British Animal Studies Network, facilitated by the University of Strathclyde, and the global animal welfare initiative, World Animal Day. She also enjoyed a four-year stint as one of the poet-performers on Radio 4’s Saturday Live and has over twenty years’ experience of running ecopoetry workshops for such organisations as WWF, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB.
What are the ecological / social crises within your region / country?
Living as I do on a cliff in the far west of Wales, I’m acutely aware of the damage that’s being inflicted on the coastal environment. Marine litter – plastic debris that creatures mistake for food or inadvertently ingest, and lost or abandoned fishing gear in which they become fatally entangled – is ever present. Microplastics are part of the oceanic food chain too: due to the toxic chemicals they contain, they disrupt organisms' reproductive and endocrine systems, with especially dangerous cumulative implications for the cetaceans at the top of the chain. Sewage pollution on and around beaches is also a major problem, as a result of Dŵr Cymru, the water company, discharging untreated waste from storm overflows after periods of heavy rain. Anthropogenic climate change poses an additional concern, with extreme storms becoming noticeably more frequent in recent years. Low-lying areas such as dunes and estuaries are vulnerable to flooding and habitat loss and I’ve seen at first-hand the devastation that a severe storm can wreak on a grey seal pupping beach. The long-term presence of grey seals is also under threat at Ceibwr, a remote local bay. Despite its designation as a Special Area of Conservation, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority recently gave the go-ahead for the construction of a recreation hub, with the prospect of serious disturbance to the bay’s wildlife from unchecked adventure tourism. As well as hosting grey seals during their autumn breeding season, Ceibwr is home to otters, peregrines, choughs and spring-breeding razorbills, guillemots and fulmars. However, in spite of PCNPA’s decision, and with legal support from Wild Justice, the grassroots fight against the development continues.