BIOGRAPHY
Poet, singer/songwriter, keyboard/accordion player, actor, humourist and facilitator Heather Wastie grew up in the Black Country. In 2006 she moved to Kidderminster where she was The Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2015/16.
Heather has published nine poetry collections. The most recent, To the Future, Love Cropredy (2020) and YOU ARE HERE (2025) were published by Lapal Publications. Her poems have also recently been published by Ekphrastic Review, Failed haiku, Wells Street Journal, Atrium, Rough Diamond (100 poems for the 21st Century), Flight of the Dragonfly and The Broken Spine.
Heather is well known for her interpretations of oral history. In 2013 she was Writer in Residence at the Museum of Carpet, turning people’s memories into poems, monologues and songs, published in November 2015 by Black Pear Press under the title Weaving Yarns. In 2017 she was commissioned by Worcestershire Building Preservation Trust to compose a song cycle to celebrate the restoration of the Weavers’ Cottages in Kidderminster.
Several shows in her performance repertoire were inspired by the history of canals, including two Canal & River Trust commissions. In 2017 she wrote and recorded poems for the popular Nationwide Building Society ad campaign, Voices Nationwide.
As a songwriter, Heather has worked on projects for people with dementia, including English Touring Opera Turtle Song (Wolverhampton 2016) and Arts Uplift (Worcestershire 2019). She has also worked as a poet and actor for National Trust property Croome Court in Worcestershire.
Heather’s band Ridgeometry released its debut CD in 2022.
See also
Heather’s archived Weaving Yarns blog
Soundcloud – songs & poems (audio)
Click here to join Heather’s mailing list for occasional updates
Heather Wastie 