Joolz

Joolz is a poet and spoken word artist from Colchester, United Kingdom, born in 1955. She works across writing, performance, photography and illustration, and is also associated with punk, punk poetry and the broader post-punk and new wave scene.

Writing and performance

Joolz Denby has worked professionally as a writer and spoken word performer for over twenty-six years, and also as a photographer and illustrative artist. She is described as an award-winning novelist with multiple nominations, and is known for commissioned public poetry. Her live work includes dramatic readings of poetry and prose, and she tours internationally with these performances. She is noted for the expressive, musical quality of her voice and for the way she presents the characters in her writing.

Novels and awards

Her first novel, Stone Baby, earns her the Crime Writers' Association New Crime Writer of the Year award, and she is also shortlisted for the John Creasey Award. The audio recording of the novel receives the Earphone Award in the United States. Her third novel, Billie Morgan, is shortlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize and for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award. Her later novel Borrowed Light and the poetry and short fiction collection Pray For Us Sinners both follow these earlier works.

Music, broadcasting and exhibitions

Joolz also works in music, spending over twenty-six years with New Model Army and with New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack. She performs regularly at venues ranging from the Royal Albert Hall and the House of Commons to rock festivals, arts centres, universities, rock clubs and coffee houses, and has a long-standing presence at Glastonbury. She also appears regularly on radio, including BBC Radio Four and Woman's Hour, and on BBC Radio One, as well as on television. Her Arts Council-sponsored exhibition on New Model Army, One Family - One Tribe; The Art & Artefacts Of New Model Army, draws large audiences in Bradford and Hamm, Germany. Her photographic exhibition Bradford - True North also attracts significant visitor numbers and is later acquired by Bradford University for permanent display.

Other work

She serves as artistic director of the 2006 Illuminate Festival strand Radical Brontes and is designated a Cultural Revolutionary. Joolz is also part of Red Sky Coven, alongside Justin Sullivan of New Model Army and Rev Hammer.