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Fiona Glen

–– writer –– artist –– editor ––


~ work out with ~ Gutter 30, Ambient Receiver ~

Projects
++
  1. Shapeshifter: Tracing the Cultural Octopus
  2. Mycoglossia with Nina Hanz – HVTN Press
  3. transient guardians – Magical Octopus + De Gids
  4. Meat Dreaming – Sticky Fingers
  5. Slimy, Sticky, Sweet – Aww-Struck + SPAM
  6. Ground Up – ICA x BBC New Creatives
++ OTHERS

Workshops, Courses + Programmes
++
  1. HUM MURMUR MUTTER – Camden Art Centre
  2. Attendant Writing – LOT + Glengall Wharf
  3. Inside Your Mouth – Camden Art Centre
  4. Gut Feelings – TACO!
  5. Playing Houses – Flat Time House
  6. *immersions – Al Ma’amal
++ OTHERS

Poetry
++
  1. Unflock – Strings
  2. Wriggler + Squid – Brilliant Vibrating Interface
  3. As Silica – Dark Mountain 24
  4. On Alberto Balsam – Broken Sleep anthology
  5. Boundless + Transmission – Pollination
  6. Yeast + Headtail – Tentacular Magazine
++ MORE

Essays 
++
  1. Being is a tender strength – Prototype 5
  2. Leaves, Alive and Otherwise – Still Point
  3. Heal Underfoot – Simulacrum
  4. Turning – Letters to the Earth
  5. Welcome to Elsewhere – NOIT Journal
++ MORE

Experimental Writing
++

Mark
 Fiona Glen reading at Ada Lake, Belgrade. Still from video by Luka Knežević-Strika.


microbio(me)     


I am a writer, artist and editor from Edinburgh. Across forms, my work circulates around ecology, language and relationship. I’m interested in how we come to understand ourselves through telling stories about – and identifying with – other entities. I can be found writing sensual celebrations of hagfish and developing audio projects which play with the materiality of plastic.


where I am +
where I’ve been


In January 2024, I moved to Vancouver, which sits on the unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. I came to this mossy place from London, UK, where I graduated in 2020 from the MA Writing at the Royal College of Art, worked as a creative strategist and copywriter for over four years, and then was part of the Editorial team at Serpentine for two years. There I worked on film, text, audio, Serpentine Podcast, and the Art + Ideas publishing platform. Before living in London, I had the chance to study in The Hague, Montreal and upstate New York. I was born and raised in Edinburgh, and Scotland is my home. I’m grateful for all that the places I’ve lived, along with their people and beings, have taught me.


my practice


My independent work explores embodiment, unruly ecologies, and how we humans understand themselves through images, metaphors, things, and other beings. My work-in-progress book, Shapeshifter, considers the octopus as a slippery figure in contemporary culture – and, like the octopus, it moves through different states, changing its approach to the reader. 

I’m passionate about interdisciplinary, collaborative, and experimental writing – particularly where it intersects with art – and I have taught writing courses at venues including Camden Art Centre. My audio work has previously been commissioned by the BBC and ICA, my essays and criticism have been published in periodicals such as ArtReview, MAP Magazine, Aesthetica, and 3:AM Magazine, and my creative essays and prose have appeared in anthologies such as DreamsTimeFree, NOIT, Pala, Dark Mountain, and Prototype 5. Mycoglossia, my first poetry pamphlet, co-written with Nina Hanz, was published in December 2022 by HVTN Press, and is an experimental exploration of mushrooms and spores.

I gravitate towards strange incidences, fantastical life cycles, and stories of enthusiasm and obsession. I revel in pop culture where it converges with the weird, and I seek to celebrate the unseen majesty of overlooked beings: worms, frogs, mould, or plankton. My projects have seen me theorising slime trends on YouTube and fictionalising the formation of the human skull. 


work with me 


I am available to work on publications, exhibitions, podcasts, cultural events, editorial programmes and more. Bringing together experience within creative agencies, arts organisations and my independent work, I understand how to meet the needs of a range of organisations, project types and audiences. My clients include Serpentine Education + Civic, Dorling Kindersley, People, and URGE Collective. 

If you are interested in collaborating, finding out more about my previous projects, or hiring me to support as a freelancer in any of the below areas, please contact me directly at the email address in the bottom left.

  • Art writing + curatorial texts
  • Writing workshops 
  • Editing 
  • Copyediting + proofreading*
  • Creative strategy 
  • Copywriting 
  • Content strategy, production + commissioning

*I’m trained and certified with distinction by the College of Media and Publishing.