I was born in Yorkshire and grew up in Oxfordshire. I studied English and Philosophy (the best subject in the world; as essential as it is useless) at The University of Nottingham, where I helped edit its creative writing magazine, Jabberwocky, and went through a phase of attending seven dance classes per week in my final year (a fact I credit with missing out on a First by 0.5 percent, something I’m definitely, definitely not still bitter about). Back home in Oxford, I did a Masters in Creative Writing, during which I became particularly interested in the role of the unconscious in creativity, while spending much of the year modelling for a painter.

Published in Brittle Star, The Frogmore Papers, Iota, Stand Magazine, The Warwick Review, South Magazine and others, I’ve been an active member of poetry and writing groups around Oxford and assist with the promotion of literacy and creative writing at The Gatehouse, a centre for the homeless and poorly housed. I’ve read three times at The Ashmolean Museum as part of its Ekphrasis Poetry scheme and have written articles in The Guardian (and in various places under a pseudonym) on the topics of womanhood, vanity and art.

For the last seven years, I’ve maintained the accidental foray into art modelling, and travelled solo around the world several times as a subject within fine-art photography, being sculpted in bronze, painted and taking the odd (very small) acting job along the way. Proudest moment: I picked up Thor’s hammer (not a euphemism) on set. My dance images have been tattooed on a complete stranger four times, which is a rather surreal sort of honour (and slightly cooler than being printed on a cushion, which also happened once).

A keen traveller, much of my writing comes from a fascination with creativity, the relationship between selfhood and performance, consciousness and spirituality (God seems to be a recurring character in my work). I’m also interested in issues of physicality and the sexualisation/innocence of the human body, appearance (versus reality), perception and the role of the imagination.

I’d be nothing without a daily dose of loose leaf tea.

Email: Yvonne_Eller@live.co.uk
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