Monday, July 19th, 2004
Chelley McLear

Chelley McLear is a performance poet, born in England and now lives in Belfast, Ireland. She is part of the poetry group the Democratic Poetry Party, which meets on the first Friday of each month in Belfast.

Chelley McLear discovered poetry at a very early age. She rediscovered poetry post marriage, children and on the verge of divorce. Sometimes described as the tabloid poet, her work deals with everyday issues in an everday manner.

"Poetry should be accessible to everyone, I hope mine reaches the parts that others forget".

Greatest influences are very much contemporary, post punk. Attila the Stockbroker, John Cooper Clarke and Lemn Sissay have all approached poetry in very different ways but what they have in common is an energy that revitalises poetry today.

Chelley is in the process of releasing her first CD entitled "Adventures In My Handbag". She has been involved in a number of projects in Northern Ireland encouraging children from 6 to 86 to put pen to paper or words to breath and discover poetry for the 21st century. She has appeared on BBC television's "Working Lunch" and has been published in a number of anthologies and magazines. Chelley is also a founding member of the Belfast poetry collective known simply as "belfastpoets".

www.chelley.biz