MARI ELLIS DUNNING
Poet. Researcher. Workshop Facilitator.
Mari Ellis Dunning’s debut poetry collection, Salacia, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2019. She has since placed second in both the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition and the Sylvia Plath Poetry Prize. Mari is a PhD candidate at Aberystwyth University, where she is writing a historic novel set in sixteenth-century Wales, exploring the relationship between accusations of witchcraft, the female body and reproduction. Pearl and Bone was selected as Wales Arts Review’s Number 1 of 2022, and is available from Parthian now. Mari lives on the west coast of Wales with her husband, their two sons, and their very adorable poochon. She is the founder of Pay for Poets, a free resource to help writers earn a living through their work.
“Dunning is a writer who dares to point her pen’s sharp tip towards tales that are culturally established, anchored in tradition, and sacred to some.”
— Mab Jones, Poetry Wales
Pearl & Bone
Beautiful, emotional and richly imagistic, Mari Ellis Dunning presents mothers in many forms: those experienced, chosen, unwitting, and presumed, asking us to consider the true nuances of motherhood – delicate as pearl, durable as bone.
Wales Arts Review Best Poetry of 2022
Recent Publications
Mari Ellis Dunning 