Kirsty was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, grew up next to a field and has now moved to Whitechapel, London following completion of a degree in American Literature and Creative Writing at UEA in Norwich. After serving on the board of editors for the Tulane Review during a year abroad in New Orleans, she decided to start a small literary journal, the contents of which would be generated by a 'spur word'. She put together the first issue of Fuselit, 'Demo', in October 2005, and sold it from a stall on the university campus for 50p. She still edits it to this day, although it has grown in ambition since then and now includes a CD and additional booklet with every issue.
Kirsty's first Fuselit editorial
While Fuselit occupies a lot of her free time, she is also regularly invited to perform her own poetry in London, has been published in a wide variety of magazines and websites, and has recently joined Jon Stone in the Sidekick Books venture, gathering together and publishing small, illustrated multi-poet anthologies. She has co-run a number of poetry nights, including launches for Fuselit, and regularly reports on unusual literary goings-on via the online journal Cut Out & Keep.
Kirsty comperes the launch of Fuselit: Aquarium at the Betsey Trotwood
Her interests come in evangelistic bursts - she will regularly have an entire week of singing skater Johnny Weir's praises, before embarking the following week on an in-depth investigation of the life and loves of Nathaniel Hawthorne. More often than not, all roads lead to Shakira. Her poetry emerges in a similar way - conceived, written and edited in one short burst of inspiration. As a result, it's often quite compulsive and takes the form of a colourful, fast-paced reaction to something experienced or read. This reading matter ranges from short hagiographies to 1950s texts on perversion to the doomed adventures of Wile E Coyote.
From an April 2010 interview: "I find myself writing from the perspectives of people who find themselves in impossible situations — often men, because I find something worth fighting over in the pressures that get lumped on that role. Certain subjects push my buttons — repression, loneliness, frustration, ludicrous ties and stupid rules, especially those that are self-imposed. But there’s always something new and intriguing that’ll pull me in a different direction. Extra emphasis on the ludicrous."
Dr Fulminare's Casenotes: "An industrious skivvy who obeys readily. Can be persuaded to fetch the most preposterous ingredients from afar at a moment's notice. Sometimes rebukes me for being too harsh (!) Spends a goodly sum of her meagre allowance on unnatural dyes for her hair, a practice I cannot endorse. Terminally disorganised."
Dr Fulminare's Bard Games (w. Jon Stone), sold with Fuselit: Tilt
Short collection of co-authored poems written according to the rules of various tabletop games, including dominoes, battleships and jenga.
Obakarama (editor/contributor), December 2009
£5.00, 40pp
Coin Opera (editor), December 2009
£5.00, 48pp
'Covering Tracks', Highly Commended in The New Writer 'Best New Poetry Collection' category, 2006
'The Sad Girl Waiting at the Mouth of the Pit' @ Hand + Star
'On dressing up as Dracula to come out to your parents' @ Hand + Star
'Black Diamond Heavies' @ Pomegranate
Two poems @ Soundzine
'I Sold Your Fingers' @ Toad In Mud
'Lacrimophilia' @ ABCTales Magazine
Three poems @ Argotist Online
'By A Narrow Red Ribbon' @ Farafina Online (link down)
Forthcoming: 'Suave Ben's Panic Box' in Deep River Apartments, an anthology of poems on David Lynch's Blue Velvet (The Private Press)
'Sweet Death 500' in Polarity 1, June 2010
Two poems in Dwang 1 (Tangerine Press), June 2009
Four poems in City State: New London Poetry, May 2009
'Quim is a Nice Word' in Stop Sharpening Your Knives 3, May 2009
'What's Up?' in Rising 49, February 2009
Two poems in Shakespeare's Monkey Revue, October 2008
'Three reasons to love Teedie Roosevelt' in Rising 47, September 2008
Three poems in Mimesis 2, August 2007
Two poems from 'Covering Tracks' in The New Writer 81, March/April 2007
'Water Snail's Pinwheel Minute' in 101 Poets for the Cornish Assembly, boho press, 2006
'Preservativ' in Magma 33, Winter 2005
'If At First' in Fuselit: Demo, October 2005
'For Example' in Fuselit: Straddle, December 2005
'Laying Across Qwerty' in Fuselit: Rogue, March 2006
'Yoink' (short prose) in Fuselit: Snarl, May 2006
'Basking Shark' in Fuselit: Adore, November 2006
'I am writing' in Fuselit: Battery, January 2007
'In this album' in Fuselit: Proof, April 2007
'The Man in the Fez with the Britney Mic' (short prose) in Fuselit: Nude, July 2007
'The chimera's ice cream gives in and melts ...' in Chimerium, sold with Fuselit: Aquarium, Winter 2008
'Ittan-momen' in Obakarama, December 2009