VJ Appleton is a Swansea-based poet, writer, multidisciplinary artist and social entrepreneur whose creative practice includes poetry, spoken word, prose, screenwriting, songwriting and experimental multimedia storytelling, as well as more broadly, visual and immersive arts, photography and film.
VJ has been writing poetry for decades, exploring identity and belonging, neurodivergence, disability, relationships, grief, nature and human perception. Their works blends their own personal reflection with philosophical enquiry, sensory imagery, social commentary and, at times, humour.
VJ is particularly interested in challenging conventional boundaries between literary and artistic forms, combining poetry with moving image, photography, sound and interactive experiences. Their work includes experimental film-poetry projects, screenwriting from neurodivergent perspectives and the development of an interactive poetry book.
Alongside their own writing, VJ also runs accessible, participatory poetry and creative workshops, encouraging people to experiment with visual, spoken, digital and collaborative forms of expression. Some of this work is through their social enterprise, Divergent Emergent CIC, which supports neurodivergent people in accessing the creative industries, both for pleasure and for developing their careers, and through work they do at festivals and events that are open to the public.
They are currently developing a collection of poetry drawn from several decades of writing, which will be in digital form and accessible for all audiences.
