Dawn Watson is a poet and writer from Belfast, where she lives with her son and partner. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Queen’s University.
Dawn’s debut collection We Play Here (2023) is published with Granta Books. It was a Guardian Poetry Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the John Pollard International Poetry Prize for an outstanding debut collection, and the inaugural PEN Heaney Prize which recognises a single volume of poetry of outstanding literary merit. Her poetry pamphlet The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher (2019) is published with The Emma Press. Dawn’s work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, and BBC Radio Ulster, and has appeared in leading literary journals including The Poetry Review, The Maine Review, and Granta.
Dawn has been the recipient of an ACES award and a General Award from the Arts Council NI, and is a former journalist and national tabloid sub editor of 18 years. She completed a PhD in poetry in 2022 at Queen’s University titled ‘Strangely Alive’: Elizabeth Bishop and the ‘Art of Story Writing’, and an MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism from Queen’s University after winning the Ruth West Poetry Scholarship Award.
Dawn Watson 