Lianne Futia. Spoken Word Poet. Memoirist. Writer.
The Writer. The Person
Lianne was born and raised in North Wales by her mother, Therese. As
the eldest of five children, she knows the hardship of being last in the bath on
bath night (usually Sunday) and the delights of corporation pop and paste
butties.
Growing up amidst the calamity of a close-knit council estate
armed her with the wit, passion and grit that shapes her
writing. She writes with a strong working class voice that proudly
resonates with a variety of audiences through its astute emotional intelligence and
a moving authenticity that people cannot help but connect with.
Lianne is currently working on a compelling memoir called Shaping the Cloth: Every Cut, Every Stitch.
There is no real distinction between Lianne Futia the person and Lianne Futia, the writer; her writing is her and her dramatically-deep emotional reactions to life (some might call her a drama queen, but she'll wear that crown with sass).
As well as being a writer and spoken word artist, Lianne is a qualified post
compulsory English teacher and holds an MA in Writing from Liverpool John Moore's University. But before any of that, Lianne is a mother of four children, well now two adults and two teens, but still her babies. Her experiences of motherhood feature vividly in her work with a brutal honesty about the moments of triumph and disaster (and she is confident that there is always far more of the latter). Her honesty about motherhood gives hope to mothers everywhere that they’re not the only ones who have thought about running away at least a hundred times before breakfast. Lianne is currently working on a vibrant collection of contemporary, rhythmic poetry about pregnancy, motherhood, relationships after children and losing yourself in the madness of motherhood. Not to mention Peri-fecking-menopause! It promises to be raw, funny, heart wrenching, and shockingly relatable!
Lianne writes evocative traditional poetry laced with imagery and the ability to transport the senses, but she truly comes into her own when performing her almost lyrical, rhythmic spoken word poetry where her frank realism and often dark humour cuts to the core, emotionally shocks and inspires empowerment in equal measures. Since starting her spoken word journey Lianne has gathered a following of people after her many appearances at Voicebox - Spoken Word where she has performed alongside other poets such as Sabrina Benhaim, Rudy Francisco and the former Young People's Poet Laureate for Wales 2013-2016, Martin Daws.
Lianne took a few years out of her performing during the period of time we shall not name (rhymes with Schmovid). When the world opened back up to the "new normal," Lianne went back into teaching for a while before abruptly coming to her senses. But now she's back full-throttle to bask in the wonder of words, more determined than ever to shout from as many stages as possible and hopefully somewhere along the line, get those books published.
The poet is a poet once more!