Kim Squirrell is a writer and artist of Caribbean and Irish heritage living and working in rural Dorset. She holds a degree in Fine Art and English from the University of Exeter and her interdisciplinary practice has encompassed environmental theatre, collaborative performance, and site-specific installation.She has worked in experiential learning using oral storytelling to enhance skill building and forge nature connection.   

 
Her writing has appeared in publications including Poetry Review, Stand, Riptide, poetry anthologies Out of Bounds and More Fiya, and the short story anthology Resist. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize.
 
Returning to study at Exeter Kim gained an MA in Creative Writing, submitting a long polyphonic narrative poem drawing on archival documents, objects and images which led to further experiments in long form poetry and prose. In 2021 she won the Bridport Prize Dorset Award for her novel in progress, ‘Shale’ and the following year won the Sky Arts RSL Writers Award for fiction.

In 2022 she became Literature Works Quay Words Writer in Residence creating poetry and arts installations in Exeter Custom House and around the quay and canal. 

She is currently co-owner of Ink & Page a maker’s shop producing and showcasing bookbinding and block printing along with letterpress poetry. Kim and her partner bookbinder David Squirrell offer tuition, workshops, professional development for artists and writers and dispense poetry in collaboration with The Poetry Pharmacy bookshop in Shropshire.