It began when Helena’s pamphlet collection, Mr and Mrs Philpott on Holiday at Aucherawe & Other Poems, was published by Kettillonia Press (www.kettillonia.co.uk/) in 2001. Her first full collection, Starlight on Water, followed in 2003 from Rialto Press and happily was a Jerwood Prize winner.

She writes both serious and light verse. Unsuitable Poems (2005) and The Unread Squirrel (2009) represent her humorous and satirical side. She has performed widely, often provoking riotous laughter, and has also managed to set up and run HappenStance Press, (shortlisted for the Michael Marks pamphlet publisher award in 2009) while working by day as a college lecturer in Adam Smith College, Fife.

She publishes poetry pamphlets (mainly first collections), edits the pamphlet review Sphinx and writes critically for a range of magazines, as well as recording the story of the press in annual ‘chapters’. She blogs (sorry!) at http://www.happenstancepress.co.uk/wordpress/

She has a second full collection (Plot and Counterplot) forthcoming from Shoestring Press in October/November 2010.

Publications by Helena Nelson:
Mr and Mrs Philpott on Holiday at Auchterawe & Other Poems, Kettillonia Press (2001)
Starlight on Water, Rialto Press, (2003) (Available here)
Unsuitable Poems, HappenStance, (2005)
The HappenStance Story Chapter 1, HappenStance (2006)
The HappenStance Story Chapter 2, HappenStance (2007)
The HappenStance Story Chapter 3, HappenStance (2008)
The HappenStance Story Chapter 4, HappenStance (2010)
How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published, HappenStance (2009)