University of Leeds appoints new Caster Fellow in Poetry

The Caster Felowship celebration at The University of Leeds Caster Fellows Helen Mort, Kris Johnson, Zaffar Kunial, Anthony Capildeo and Malika Booker pictured with Vice-Chancellor Shearer West and Lizzie and Douglas Caster

The University of Leeds is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Caster Cultural Fellow in Poetry, Kris Johnson, following the relaunch of the Fellowships earlier this year

Funded through the generosity of alumnus Douglas Caster (Electronic and Electrical Engineering, 1975) and his wife Lizzie Caster, these Fellowships provide emerging poets with sustained time to develop their creative practice while playing an active role in the intellectual and cultural life of the University. One fellow will be recruited each year over five years. Appointments are fixed term for up to two years, with a minimum of one academic year.

Kris Johnson, a poet and researcher in the environmental humanities, will take up the Fellowship in September 2026. Her debut collection, Ghost River (Bloodaxe, 2023), was shortlisted for the 2025 Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize for a distinctive first volume and longlisted for the 2023 Laurel Prize for ecopoetry and nature writing. Johnson received a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England to develop her second collection, The Vast Kingdom of Nowhere, forthcoming from Bloodaxe in 2027. She has also just won New Writing North's new award, the Charlotte Aitken Trust Award for Poetry.

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