Sophia Blackwell started performing poetry in 2003 as part of Hammer and Tongue's first international poetry slam team. Since then, she has performed at Glastonbury, Edinburgh and many more of the major festivals, and at venues such as the Albert Hall, Soho Theatre and Camden Roundhouse. She is still a member of Hammer and Tongue, as well as the group Other Voices and Bristol-based collective Short Sharp Shock, and works regularly with Apples and Snakes.

Her first chapbook, Into Temptation, was published in 2009 and her novel, After My Own Heart, in 2012.  Sophia's poems have appeared in anthologies from Bloodaxe, The Emma Press and Sidekick Books. Her writing has also been published in Time Out, Diva, Trespass, and Rising. In 2014 she was named one of the 'Top Ten Young British Poets You Should Know About'and her poetry appeared as the epigraph to Laurie Penny's new book Unspeakable Things. Her new collection, ‘The Fire-Eater’s Lover’ is out next year from Burning Eye Books. 

'Some of Sophia Blackwell's poems read like Nico should be singing them to John Cale's viola, some as if Shakespeare's slut sister taught him all he knew, others are as new as the next dawn. Dirty, juicy, knowing,open- works for me.' Stella Duffy