Daniel Hinds is a poet and identical twin from Newcastle Upon Tyne. His debut poetry collection New Famous Phrases was published by Broken Sleep Books in March 2025, and won the international UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award in 2026 from Struga Poetry Evenings. The collection was also a finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Poetry 2025, and received an Honourable Mention in the Big Other Readers’ Choice Award 2025. New Famous Phrases was also Book of the Month in The Candyman’s Trumpet magazine and featured in The Book Bag’s Christmas Gift List.
He is a BBC New Creative, New Writing North North East Poet, and Ilkley Literature Festival New Northern Poet. He is a North East Culture Award 2024 Newcomer of the Year finalist. His writing focuses on myths, folklore, and nature, and includes ekphrastic poems, eco-poems, and experimental prose poem reviews that blur the distinction between creative and critical practices.
His writing has been recognised in various writing competitions, awards, and prizes. He won the Poetry Society’s Timothy Corsellis Young Critics Prize 2018 and his experimental prose poem review of Jay Bernard’s Surge was one of the winners of the Shortlist Book Review Competition 2020, held in celebration of the Dylan Thomas Prize by Swansea University. His poetry was commended in the National Centre for Writing’s UEA New Forms Award 2021, and was recognised in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 13. He was also one of the winners of The Broken Spine’s Flash Fiction Competition. He was shortlisted for the Cinnamon Press Poetry Pamphlet Award 2022, Streetcake Experimental Writing Prize 2019, and the Terry Kelly Poetry Prize 2018, and longlisted for the Cinnamon Press Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2021. Two of his poems were highly commended in the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts Water Poetry Competition, judged by W. N. Herbert and John Burnside. These poems were displayed at Northern Stage and projected onto Newcastle University’s Percy Building.
His poetry has been published in various literary magazines, anthologies, audio platforms, and national newspapers, including: The London Magazine, The New European, Wild Court, Poetry Salzburg Review, Stand, Southword, Shearsman, Prairie Fire, The Best New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Blackbox Manifold, The Honest Ulsterman, Iamb, Fly on the Wall Press Magazine, The Morning Star, Finished Creatures, Crannóg, Rewilding: An Ecopoetic Anthology, Newcastle University’s One Planet Anthology, Oxford University’s A Personal History of Home and A Tapestry of Homes anthologies, Amethyst Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, Perverse, Streetcake Magazine, Riggwelter, Orbis, The Seventh Quarry, New Contrast, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, York Literary Review, Poetry Scotland, Poetry and Covid, bind, Acid Bath Publishing’s The Worst Best Years: A Student Life Anthology, Travels & Tribulations, A Pocket Anthology of Addiction & Recovery, and Night Terrors, Fenland Poetry Journal, Skylight 47, StepAway Magazine, The Lake, Visual Verse, Carousel, the lickety~split, The Wilfred Owen Association Journal, Selcouth Station, Nightingale & Sparrow, Black Bough Poetry, Abridged, Poetry Bus Magazine, Confluence, Ropes Literary Journal, Fragmented Voices, Porridge, Osmosis Press, Fevers of the Mind, Spellbinder, Creative Ireland’s 2022 Poetry Anthology Chasing Shadows, Full Mood Mag, Cardigan Press’s Byline Legacies anthology, Milk and Cake Press’s Dead of Winter II and Dead of Winter III anthologies, Bent Key Publishing’s Ey Up Again anthology, The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press’s Ourselves in Rivers and Oceans anthology, the Broken Sleep Books 2025 anthology, the Til Debt Do Us Part anthology, the Struga Poetry Evenings 2026 anthology Who is Who: Poetry From Five Continents, The Candyman’s Trumpet, Recklings, BFS Horizons, and The Storms. He has also had an essay published in Pre-Raphaelite Society Review.
He was part of a panel of judges for the NCLA Belonging Poetry Competition and contributed to New Writing North’s Dawn Chorus collective sound poem, which premiered at the Durham Book Festival. He is an Ilkley Literature Festival New Northern Poet 2023. Additionally, he was commissioned by the Ilkley Literature Festival, as one of their New Northern Poets 2022, to write and record a poem that premiered at the festival for National Poetry Day. His poetry also featured in a display at Wycliffe Hall for Creation Theatre’s production of As You Like It.
His audio piece, The Stone Men of Newcastle, a sequence of poems about the city’s statues and their place in contemporary Newcastle, has been broadcast on BBC platforms, including BBC Sounds and BBC Introducing Arts with Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 6 Music, as well as the Eat the Storms podcast and XMTR. The audio piece was commissioned by New Creatives, a talent development scheme supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts and delivered by Tyneside Cinema and Naked Productions. He was recognised at the Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University’s Celebrating Success event for The Stone Men of Newcastle. His stage adaptation of The Stone Men of Newcastle was a Runner-Up for the Pomegranate Poetry Theatre Prize, and was performed by Théâtre Volière at the Poetry Plays Festival at the Cockpit Theatre, London.
He graduated from Newcastle University with a first class degree in English Literature, and a Distinction in his English Literature 1500-1900 MA, for which he won two prestigious scholarships, the School Bursary Award and Excellence Scholarship.
He is a member of The Poetry Society, The Society of Authors, The Poetry Book Society, and The Ted Hughes Society.
Praise and Reviews for New Famous Phrases:
‘New Famous Phrases strikes with precision and purpose, bringing an ancient power to modern language. It feels as though Daniel Hinds has uncovered a hidden word-hoard, and with every line, the poems cut through to the truth. Reinventing the line-initial capitalization, these poems reshape tradition with controlled force. Every word works with intention and power, leaving a lasting mark on the mind of the reader.’
Professor David Morley FRSL, FURY (shortlisted The Forward Prize for Best Collection)
‘In New Famous Phrases, Daniel Hinds unearths sparkling treasures from the word-hoard. Classic themes are given witty and innovative twists: Apollo becomes the god of moonboots and Ted Hughes’s Crow inspires a mischievous magpie. Come and revel in the rites of spring, voyage with a young mariner, and enjoy innovative review-responses to contemporary voices. New Famous Phrases brims with freshness and virtuosity.’
Dr Yvonne Reddick, Burning Season (winner of the Laural Prize for Best UK First Collection of Ecopoetry)
‘Erudite, witty, visionary and humorous, this is a collection of unexpected swerves in dialogue with the ‘submerged voices’ of poetry’s bloodline. Blending song and story, this collection brings us inventive prose poem book reviews alongside insightful lyrics and fresh takes on mythology. Partly a testament to the artform itself, New Famous Phrases demonstrates a unique flair for sound and language. Hinds’ ability to turn a phrase transforms perspective.’
Dr John Challis, The Resurrectionists (The Guardian poetry book of the month)
‘New Famous Phrases is a sophisticated debut collection of poems that quirkily blend lyricism with a dialogic approach. These intense and dense poems, layered like geological memories and mindscapes, are inhabited by a multitude of conjured ghosts (from Dante and Shelley to W.S. Graham), inviting a conversation with the dead.’
Dr Ágnes Lehóczky, Swimming Pool
‘This is ambitious and lyrical new work with a wide and expansive outlook.’
Will Mackie, New Writing North https://newwritingnorth.com/journal/new-and-recent-poetry-from-the-north-spring-2025/
‘on the evidence of this substantial and accomplished volume, Hinds’s poetry certainly deserves the epithet Eliotic […] Hinds has an impressive talent at the aphorism that mark him out as an Eliotian poet in more than simply style’
‘Daniel Hinds is about as uncannily Eliotic as any contemporary poet gets, but his poetry is scored through with its own distinctiveness, precisely judged lyricism, and often astonishing aphoristic grasp.
New Famous Phrases is an unusually accomplished debut collection.’
Alan Morrison, review of New Famous Phrases in The Morning Star newspaper https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/uncanny-echoes
‘a poet of scale, imagination and verve’
‘Daniel Hinds gives us many delights in this collection; every poem yields riches. The poems are taut, rhythmic, playful, and yet, accessible. They touch on mythology, the rich legacy of poetry throughout time. Hinds has a strong voice; his words echo back as he engages with many poets from different eras. On the page, the capitalisation enhances the canonical feel, inviting the reader to take their time. A book to read at a stately pace to savour the skill, exuberance and joy.’
Rona Fitzgerald, review of New Famous Phrases in The High Window https://thehighwindowpress.com/2025/06/23/the-high-window-reviews-23-june-2025/#Daniel%20Hinds
‘the poetry within these pages is fresh, inventive (including prose poetry reviews) and sharp.’
‘Buy New Famous Phrases if you like creative, inventive poetry that is rich in imagery and emotion that brings the old greats into the modern era with responses, challenges and respect.’
Paul Short, review of New Famous Phrases in The Book Bag, Paul Writes Poems https://paulwritespoems.com/2025/04/13/the-book-bag-new-famous-phrases-by-daniel-hinds/
‘one of Broken Sleep Books finest poets’
Nigel Kent, ‘Drop-in by Daniel Hinds’, in Nigel Kent – Poet and Reviewer https://nigelkentpoet.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/drop-in-by-daniel-hinds/
‘Some of the most enduring poetry in the English tradition draws on classical myth, literature, and folklore. Daniel Hinds’ New Famous Phrases (Broken Sleep Books, 2025) participates in this lineage with remarkable originality. Although deeply informed by literary history, Hinds never imitates; instead, he revitalises inherited forms and narratives through a voice that feels strikingly fresh, imaginative, and contemporary. His encyclopaedic knowledge of language and literature serves not as ornamentation but as the foundation for ambitious poems that operate simultaneously as homage, dialogue, and innovation.’
‘Taken together, the poems in New Famous Phrases reveal a writer of extraordinary imaginative range and technical skill. Hinds’ deep engagement with literary tradition, coupled with his ability to reshape inherited stories for contemporary concerns, results in a collection that is intellectually rewarding and emotionally resonant. Even readers unfamiliar with every intertextual reference will find the work rich and absorbing; poets, in particular, may recognise aspects of their own creative struggles mirrored in Hinds’ explorations of artistic labour. This is a collection that not only showcases a formidable poetic talent but also invites reflection on the enduring relationship between past and present, influence and originality, imagination and craft.’
Nigel Kent, review of ‘New Famous Phrases’ in Nigel Kent – Poet and Reviewer https://nigelkentpoet.wordpress.com/2026/03/07/review-of-new-famous-phrases-by-daniel-hinds/
‘Throughout the collection, Hinds’ invocation of the power of emblematic words is of special interest. He’s always aware of their allusions, connotations and ramifications’
‘It takes real guts for a poet to plough their own furrow in a first full collection, and Daniel Hinds is to be congratulated on his achievement.’
Matthew Stewart, review of New Famous Phrases in Rogue Strands https://roguestrands.blogspot.com/2025/06/refreshing-received-notions-daniel.html
‘In New Famous Phrases, Daniel Hinds emerges as a poet immersed in poetics, a poet drawn to the heartfelt, the angry and the visceral as he parses poems, interprets, responds, connects and delves. The collection is a book of poetry about poetry, about how poems stay with you, how they speak to your innermost responses to words.’
Catherine Macnaughton, review of New Famous Phrases in Recklings, 7, Winter 2026 (Ted Hughes Society)
‘an enthralling, vivid collection of poems that explore themes of mythology and nature, replete with intertextual references and dedications to classical poets and writers.’
‘All of Hinds’s poems in New Famous Phrases are absolutely breathtaking. He has a unique talent for giving every word its own power within a piece by making use of sophisticated and descriptive vocabulary, creating unforgettable and vivid images. A must-read on all accounts.’
I Rose, review of New Famous Phrases in Confluence https://www.confluencemagazine.co.uk/review-28-04-26
‘A terrific inventive debut which challenges, responds and respects the masters.’
Paul Short, The Book Bag Christmas Gift List 2025, Paul Writes Poems https://paulwritespoems.com/2025/11/30/the-book-bag-christmas-gift-guide-2025/
‘in his amazing new book, the complexity of the poetic concepts is off the scale impressive, the poems are more emotive and dramatic than is the norm in a prosaic industry. So, this is an exceptional experience, and also a magic moment, something which we will remember. It may be that even his second book isn’t going to make us feel quite so unusual and delighted, as a pattern has been laid down. This is the point where the map changes.’
‘Hinds does not accept the primacy of empathy, surely the main contemporary dogma in poetry. He is what you would call a formalist – the leading features are intelligence and creativity; […] Hinds gives the impression that the poem doesn’t exist before he writes it; it emerges from a process of sheer creation, inside the world of language and radical empathy. The contradictions unfolding in the spiral of the poem’s design mirror the different elements of a situation, the kind in which we as human subjects are caught. Reason may be simpler than the situation… that’s where narrative starts.’
‘the poems are strikingly diverse.’
‘a bottomless fund of ideas and images which tantalise and stimulate us.’
‘the originality of the poems and the dizzying shifts of frame which almost all of them spiral through. The poems are emotive, their reach is more Gothic and operatic’
‘Comparison just shows up how radically original Hinds is. It is not appropriate to define the style of a debut. Let’s agree that this debut is thrilling, challenging, sometimes breathtaking;’
Andrew Duncan, review of New Famous Phrases in Litter Magazine https://www.littermagazine.org/2026/06/review-new-famous-phrases-by-daniel.html?view=magazine
‘The decision to award the “Bridges of Struga” award to Daniel Hinds, […] lies in his poetry, which represents a specific blend of historical depth, mythological echoes and the raw, almost sculptural precision of language. His work can be described as an “archaeology of the word”, where each verse digs through the layers of the past, to bring to the surface forgotten voices and landscapes.’
‘Nikola Kukunesh, acting director of the NUM “Struga Poetry Evenings” – Struga, and Mite Stefoski, artistic director of the festival […] emphasized that the encounter of myth and the present is the core around which the theme in Daniel Hinds’ poetry develops, so that the following can be highlighted as pivotal themes in his poetry: “History and heritage, noticeably, are the cultural burden of which he is deeply fascinated. Anglo-Saxon history, medieval legends and the way in which the past shapes contemporary identity are particularly emphasized and impressive. Such poems of his create the illusion that the past is not dead, but that it pulsates beneath the surface of modernity; Nature and landscape carry descriptions that do not have a sterile, decorative role. The landscape in his work is alive, often harsh and full of symbolism, it is a living protagonist that shapes human experience; Mythology, as a logical consequence, but reinterpreted in both classical and folklore motifs, giving them a new, often darker and more tangible dimension.”’
‘Hinds’ poetics are distinguished by linguistic precision and an abundance of archaic, yet functional expressions. His style is economical yet powerful. Each word is a stone that weighs where it belongs, avoiding superfluous sentimentality. The auditory elements are no less valuable, because striving for archaic expression, his alliteration and internal rhythm create a realistic image that these are sounds that come directly from the oral poetic tradition. In short, his poetry is not an ordinary reading, but an observation of the process of creating a world from mud, blood and verses. Daniel Hinds is a young poet who successfully bridges the gap between the ancient and the contemporary, creating timeless verses that resonate with authority and intellectual curiosity. His work is a must-read for those who love poetry that, at the same time, challenges and delights – emphasized the SVP.’
UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award judges comments in Cultural Press, 332, in Sloboden Pechat, 16-17.5.2026
Interviews and Press
Sofija Popovska, ‘Weekly Dispatches From the Frontlines of World Literature’, Asymptote Journal (22nd May 2026) https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/05/22/weekly-dispatches-from-the-frontlines-of-world-literature-251/
‘Drop-in by Daniel Hinds’, article on Nigel Kent – Poet and Reviewer website about New Famous Phrases https://nigelkentpoet.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/drop-in-by-daniel-hinds/
Newcastle University Alumni Interview for National Poetry Day about New Famous Phrases, 2nd October 2025 https://www.ncl.ac.uk/alumni/news/item/national-poetry-day/
Newcastle University Alumni Siblings Day article https://www.ncl.ac.uk/alumni/news/item/siblings-day/
‘An Interview with Daniel Hinds’, The Pomegranate London, 6 (2024), pp. 8-9
Author interview with Cardigan Press, 2021