Nancy Campbell

Nancy Campbell
is a ClimateCultures Author

A writer and book artist interested in polar regions and water conservation: Royal Geographical Society's 2020 Ness Award for her books on culture and climate change.


Nancy Campbell is a writer with a particular interest in the polar regions and water conservation, described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘a deft, dangerous and dazzling poet writing from the furthest reaches of both history and climate change’. She was awarded the Royal Geographical Society Ness Award in 2020 for her books on culture and climate change: a decade of work resulting from a series of research residencies with Arctic and Scandinavian museums.

Her publications include Disko Bay (which relates her experiences at the most northern museum in the world in Upernavik, Greenland), The Library of Ice: Readings in a Cold Climate and Fifty Words for Snow. Her artist’s books are collected and exhibited internationally, and her letterpress-printed limited edition on polar landscape and language How To Say ‘I Love You’ In Greenlandic: An Arctic Alphabet received the Birgit Skiöld Award in 2015.

In 2018 Nancy was appointed the UK Canal Laureate by The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust; her poems about waterways were published as Navigations, and engraved in lock-gates and stencilled onto docks nationwide. She has worked collaboratively with choreographers, composers, visual artists, bookbinders, anthropologists and neuroscientists.

Nancy is dedicated to developing innovative projects that engage audiences with environmental issues such as The Polar Tombola, an interactive live literature event, as well as supporting the work of fellow creatives through her editorial work and publishing activities.

Creative Showcase

Nancy has contributed a piece on her non-fiction book, Fifty Words for Snow, to our Creative Showcase portfolio, an evolving collection of new and recent works from our members. See Fifty Words for Snow.

Nancy's ClimateCultures Posts: 

Out of Range

Out of Range

Poet Nancy Campbell reviews Nick Drake's new collection, Out of Range: poems celebrating proximity and distance (spatial, temporal, emotional) to remark on the state we’re in, taking us on a journey through known worlds into unknown ones. 1,950 Read More
A Personal History of the Anthropocene - Three Objects #7

A Personal History of the Anthropocene – Three Objects #7

Poet Nancy Campbell chooses a child's bone kayak, a wooden paddle, innovative metal islands: three objects that demonstrate how the past and present elide as our environment changes and how, whatever choices lie ahead, travel is always forward. Read More
The Polar Tombola

The Polar Tombola

Poet Nancy Campbell, whose experience in the Arctic was enriched by learning Kalaallisut, reports on the UK tour of The Polar Tombola, which aims to encourage awareness of endangered Arctic languages and the environment recorded in their vocabularies. Read More