Dr Shelley J Roche-Jacques FHEA
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Summary
I am a writer, teacher and researcher of fiction and poetry. My poetry collections Ripening Dark (2015) and Risk the Pier (2017) are mostly comprised of poems in the form of dramatic monologue, and I am interested in the history and evolution of the monologue form. My other specialism is very short fiction, known as flash fiction, and I am currently engaged in both critical and creative work on this increasingly popular literary form.
About
I began teaching at Sheffield Hallam back in 2005, alongside studying for a PhD, which looked at the use of time, space and action in the Victorian dramatic monologue.
My doctoral work led me down something of a Stylistics route, using a tool known as ‘deictic analysis’ to examine the boundaries between the lyric and dramatic in poetry. I bring to my teaching an interest in narrative structure and point-of-view, as well as the use of time, tense and setting in prose and poetry. This kind of approach helps students to think carefully about narrative viewpoint, voice and genre.
Specialist areas of interest
• dramatic monologue
• flash fiction
• short story
• writing humour
• contemporary poetry
• narratology and deixis (time, space and perspective in texts)
Teaching
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Subject area
English - Creative Writing
Courses
BA Creative Writing
BA English
MA Creative Writing
Modules
Craft and Form
A Fine Line: Poetry and Poetics
Creative Writing: Major Project
What’s the Story? Long and Short Fiction
The Contemporary Writer
The Workshop
Research
Current research projects
‘The grass beyond the door’.
Forthcoming, 2018.
Part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project bringing archive material from Cannon Hall stately home to the community. I will be running workshops with a writing group from Barnsley-based charity ‘Creative Recovery’. They and I will use archive material to create work highlighting Cannon Hall’s links with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. We will perform our work at a public event in Cannon Hall’s Fairyland garden.
Selected research projects
‘Urban Forest’. Part of the Tramlines festival, 2016. A collaboration with other writers in which we each chose a tree in Endcliffe Park, Sheffield, and used it to write and perform a short creative piece.
‘Somewhere to get to’. Commissioned by Signposts, 2011. A collaboration with musician ‘The Only Michael’ using words, music and found sounds to create a day in the life of city dwellers.
Publications
Journal articles
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). The Contemporary Dramatic Monologue in Britain and Ireland. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW, 115, 716-+.
Roche-Jacques, S. (2016). 'Out of the forest i come': Lyric and dramatic tension in the World's Wife. Language and Literature, 25 (4), 363-375. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963947016663585
Roche-Jacques, S. (2016). In Which The Pieces Are Put Together. English, 65 (250), 280-281. http://doi.org/10.1093/english/efw035
Book chapters
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). UMA INTRODUÇÃO AO MONÓLOGO DRAMÁTICO. In Monólogo Dramático e Outras Formas de Ficcionalização da Voz Poética. (1st). Pontes
Roche-Jacques, S. (2019). 'Out of the Forest I Come': Lyric and Dramatic Tension in The World’s Wife. In Stylistics. (1st). SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited
Books
Roche-Jacques, S. (2017). Risk the Pier. Eyewear Publishing.
Roche-Jacques, S. (2015). Ripening Dark.
Other publications
Roche-Jacques, S. (2023). 'The power of telekinesis is revealed to Ken in Tesco' in Flash Fiction Festival (Five). Ad Hoc Fiction
Roche-Jacques, S. (2023). 'The power of telekinesis is revealed to Ken in Tesco' in Flash Fiction Festival (Five). Ad Hoc Fiction
Roche-Jacques, S. (2022). Dandelion Years - Bath Flash Fiction Voume 7. Ad Hoc Fiction
Roche-Jacques, S. (2022). Dandelion Years - Bath Flash Fiction Voume 7. Ad Hoc Fiction
Trowbridge, S., & Doyle, S. (2022). The Presence and the Dream: a decade of the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Prize (anthology). The Pre-Raphaelite Society
Roche-Jacques, S. (2022). 'Our April At Home' poem in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review. The Pre-Raphaelite Society
Roche-Jacques, S. (2022). 'Our April At Home' poem in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Review. The Pre-Raphaelite Society
Roche-Jacques, S. (2021). The Bridport Prize Anthology 2021. Redcliffe Press
Roche-Jacques, S. (2021). The Bridport Prize Anthology 2021. Redcliffe Press
Roche-Jacques, S. (2021). 'Earwigs and the rest of it', story in Flash Flood. Flash Flood/National Flash Fiction Day 2021: https://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2021/06/earwigs-and-rest-of-it-by-shelley-roche.html
Roche-Jacques, S. (2021). 'Tombola Paradiso' in Funny Pearls magazine. https://funnypearls.com/2021/05/tombola-paradiso/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2021). 'Ronnie O'Sullivan changed my Life', story in Reflex Fiction. Reflex Fiction: https://www.reflexfiction.com/ronnie-osullivan-changed-my-life-flash-fiction-by-shelley-roche-jacques/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). 'Removing the Bouquet' in Ink, Sweat and Tears magazine. Ink, Sweat and Tears: https://inksweatandtears.co.uk/shelley-roche-jacques/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). 'House of Fun', story in The Cabinet of Heed. Cabinet of Heed: https://cabinetofheed.com/2020/04/13/house-of-fun-shelley-roche-jacques/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). 'Not Another Princess', in Flash: the international short-short story magazine (Vol. 13, No. 1). University of Chester
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). 'Perpetual Spinach', Tuesday Tales in LItro Magazine. Litro: https://www.litromagazine.com/tuesdaytales/perpetual-spinach/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2020). 'Pure and Simple' story in Ellipsiszine. Ellipsiszine: https://www.ellipsiszine.com/pure-and-simple-by-shelley-roche-jacques/
Roche-Jacques, S. (2019). 'Binhouse in your Soul', in Under the Radar magazine (Issue 24). Nine Arches Press
Roche-Jacques, S. (2018). 'The Gravy Tollbooth' in Flash: the international short-short story magazine (Vol 11. No.1). University of Chester