Good Grief Weston: Meet Poet in Residence, Sophie Dumont
We are delighted to welcome Sophie Dumont as Good Grief Weston’s first poet in residence. She will be present across the festival, offering two bespoke writing workshops (‘Tide lines: mapping love, loss and memory through writing and collage’ – Thursday 3pm and ‘Dear Sea: a collective letter writing and releasing ceremony’ – Sunday 3:30pm). She’ll also feature in the panel discussion ‘Keeping Afloat: Hannah Richell & Sophie Dumont on Rivers, Oceans, and Loss’ on Saturday afternoon.
About Sophie:
Sophie Dumont is a prize-winning poet and editor based in Bristol. Her debut poetry collection, Sculling, explores grief, memory and the ways bodies and rivers carry loss. Drawing on the sudden death of her canoe coach and partner, the collection flows between meditations on bereavement, organ donation and the rights of UK rivers. Shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection 2026, Sculling has featured in The Guardian, Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Somerset Live and Bristol Post.
Sophie’s poetry has won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize and the John Brooks Award. She’s held writing residencies with Boat Poets along Bristol Harbourside and at Exeter Custom House with Literature Works. Learn more about Sophie at sophiedumont.co.uk
In her own words:
I am incredibly honoured to be Good Grief Weston’s first poet in residence. Having a festival dedicated to grief brings our experiences into the light, inviting us to talk about our losses as naturally and openly as we talk about our joys.
Grief had a firm grip on my young adulthood and shaped who I am today. Writing has been an essential way of processing and a source of comfort during particularly dark moments.
After the traumatic and sudden death of a loved one when I was 19, I was given a notebook and instructed to write in it whenever I wanted to speak to him. That notebook became an extraordinarily powerful object: a place where I could continue our conversation and understand what I was feeling. It became a kind of portal, and I’m still grateful for it.
Grief is not one single experience; it shapeshifts and reappears in all your future selves. In my experience, it is community, creativity and time that remind us how lucky we are to have felt that love. It’s important to give ourselves and each other permission to find humour, be playful, and to seek lightness in grief.
Poetry can give us a language for what feels unsayable. It allows us to hold the contradictions of grief – to feel sadness and gratitude, isolation and connection, all at once. As poet in residence, I’m looking forward to responding to the festival through new work. I hope to create spaces for shared reflection where writing can help us approach grief creatively, celebrate our memories and deepen the dialogue with ourselves.
Images of Sophie in Weston-super-Mare by Jamie Dormer-Durling