Fantastic Voyage

Amanda Dalton is a poet and playwright. Her first book-length collection, How to Disappear (Bloodaxe Books 1999), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and she was chosen as a Next Generation Poet in 2004. Her second collection, Stray, was published by Bloodaxe in 2012. In 2021 Arc published her experimental chapbook, 30 Poems in 30 Days and, in 2022, Smith|Doorstop published a pamphlet of two long poems, Notes on Water. A version of Notes on Water was re-created for two voices and soundscape for BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears. Her third full-length collection, Fantastic Voyage (Bloodaxe Books, 2023), also includes Notes on the Water. Amanda writes extensively for BBC Radio 4 and 3 including original drama, poetry-dramas, classic adaptations, re-imaginings of film, and lyric essays. Her theatre writing includes text for outdoor and site-specific performance, and drama for young people including commissions with Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres and Keswick’s Theatre By The Lake. Freelance since 2017, much of her career has been focused on teaching, mentoring and the curation and artistic leadership of innovative cross art-form projects, often in collaboration with other artists and communities. She lives in Hebden Bridge.

9 Fantastic Voyage

10 Belly
10 Takotsubo
10 Gut
10 A Ghost Story

11 Look Inside!
12 When Andrea was 7
13 Auntie Irene says
14 One day I watch
15 Andrea’s father
16 One day I ask
17 Mum says Nancy Gardiner
18 Janet Bradley says
19 One day I go for a colonoscopy
20 Peter B says
21 Aged 9, Andrea doesn’t know
22 One day, I was sawn in half

23 Notes on Water

39 Haunts and Apparitions
41 Nights I Squat
42 Magic
44 December 1979
45 Three Hauntings
45 1 Pelican
46 2 Girl in White with Trees
47 3 Man Dressed as Bat
48 Missing
49 The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
51 like a tree
53 The Possibility of Fog
54 Ten Signs of Possession
54 1 Superhuman Strength
55 2 Knowledge of Previously Unknown Languages or Speaking in Tongues (glossolalia).
56 3 Unnatural Body Movements
57 4 Appearance of Wounds that Vanish as Quickly as They Appear
58 5 Paranormal Capabilities
59 6 Living Outside the Rules of Society
60 7 Being Persistently Ill, Falling into Heavy Sleep and Vomiting Strange Objects
61 8 Being Troubled by Spirits
62 9 Being Uncomfortable, Ugly and Violent
63 10 Making Sounds and Movements Like an Animal

64 Aftermath

67 Untitled
68 Fantastic Voyage


70 Notes
71 Acknowledgements