Welcome to this eel-inspired page of poetry. The poems below are read by their poets and are all from The Creel anthology, a book of eely poems published in the winter of 2018/19. The Creel was part of a bigger project led by the artist John Kilburn and Luke Thompson and supported by the Sustainable Earth Institute. (You might catch a glimpse of some of John’s cover art in the videos below.)

The purpose of the project was to raise awareness of the then critically endangered European eel, creating new cultural connections between this perhaps less-than-charismatic species and people through play and absurdity. For more information on the broader project, please visit the Suitcase Full of Eels website. We also have a couple of the books from the project still available here.

We have put this page together during lockdown with poets recording from their homes, so please be aware that the sound and video quality will be variable. Some might appear to be whispering eely words, others to be bellowing them.

We hope to add to the list of poets and poems here and will announce them on social media as they arrive. If you have something to contribute, please send us an eelmail.