ACE awards funding for project exploring bisexuality

A poetry project exploring the nature of bisexuality and how it is perceived has been awarded funding by Arts Council England.

The project, called Bi+ Lines, will aim to help bi+ poets develop their creative skills and grow their profile through a series of events and workshops.

Poet Helen Bowell, who will run the project, said she hopes to explore the way in which being bi+ falls "between categories" of sexuality.

"I wanted to create a project specifically for bi+ people (by which I mean anyone who loves more than one gender, including bisexual, pansexual, queer and other people), who are often excluded from both queer and straight spaces because they exist between categories," Bowell, who currently co-ordinates The Poetry Society's Young Poets Network, said.

"Bi+ Lines will give bi+ writers the chance to reclaim that 'in-betweenness' and harness it creatively in their practice."

Scheduled to start in February, the project will feature launch events in Manchester, Glasgow, Norwich, London, Brighton, Edinburgh, and York.

There will also be poetry writing workshops for bi+ poets in Manchester, Glasgow, Norwich, and London, as well as online.

Meanwhile, an anthology of bi+ poets, featuring poetry, essays and other cross-genre poetic forms, will be created.  

"Through [the] workshops, events and the first Anglophone anthology of bi+ poets, I hope this project will bring together a stronger and more visible community of writers who identify as bi+," Bowell said.

The project is being funded through Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants. Information on how people can get involved will be made available on Helen Bowell's website.