Phil Vernon

Phil stepped back in 2024 from the development, humanitarian and peacebuilding work he’d been engaged in for almost four decades. During that time he’d lived in Sudan, Lesotho, Rwanda, Mali, Ghana, Uganda and his native UK, and had worked on and in other countries in Africa, as well as Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He worked for various NGOs until 2017, before operating as a freelance consultant/advisor. He was also a member of international mining company BHP’s Forum on Corporate Responsibility for a decade, advising senior management on social issues. He’s been a trustee of several UK-based charities and is currently a trustee of The Molyneux Almshouses in Rusthall, West Kent. Before getting involved in international work, he worked on farms and in forestry in the UK.

A micro-collection of poetry, This Quieter Shore, was published in 2018 by Hedgehog Poetry Press and can now be downloaded as a free pdf file. A full collection, Poetry After Auschwitz (2020) was published by the now defunct press Sentinel Poetry after coming second in their annual book prize. A second collection, Watching the Moon Landing, was published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in January 2022. Another micro-collection, Foreshadowing (Hedgehog Poetry Press) was published in 2024, and a third full poetry collection, Guerrilla Country (Flight of the Dragonfly Press) came out in April of that year. Phil is one of three poets whose work was highlighted in a pamphlet, The Tree Poets: River of Stone (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2025). His modern version of the mediaeval hymn Stabat Mater was set to music by Nicola Burnett Smith and has been performed internationally. He was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2022; is treasurer of the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society. In 2024, he guest-edited an issue of poetry e-zine Flights and also judged the Eastbourne Poetry Cafe’s annual poetry prize. He lives with his wife Tebo in Kent.

For a year, starting in September 2026, Phil is Poet-in-Residence at the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path in East Sussex, taking part in services at the seven churches on the path and associated activities, with idea of publishing a pamphlet of poems in the summer of 2027.

Phil is seeking a publisher for a new, recently completed collection: Angles of Repose, exploring fragility in relation to family, faith and the wider world.

_______________________________________________________________________