Chris Kinsey is one of our finest Nature Poets. In 2008 she won the BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year competition. But as the poems in Swarf reveal, Chris Kinsey is also interested in human nature, especially among those whose lives are easily overlooked and undervalued – many of these poems draw on her experiences working with the elderly, with excluded students and adults with learning disabilities.

Swarf is a book about life in a small town, its mad Fridays, slow Sundays and long afternoons in the pub. It is a book of poems about living and learning, about hospitals, park-life, martial arts and greyhounds.

Chris Kinsey is a freelance writer, tutor, and rescuer of greyhounds. Her previous books are Kung Fu Lullabies (2004) and Cure for a Crooked Smile (2009), both published by Ragged Raven Press. Her stage play, Feathering the Dark, was shown at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and her short play, I and I, at Venue Cymru. She writes a regular Nature Diary for Cambria and was runner-up in Natur Cymru's 2010 'Inspired by Nature' competition. She has read at the Ledbury and Hay festivals, and her work has been featured on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Wales. She is a member of Academi, Powys Arts Forum and the board of Ty Newydd, The National Writing Centre for Wales. She lives in mid-Wales.