Rae Howells is a poet, journalist, academic and lavender farmer from Swansea. She's a fluent Welsh speaker and has colour-grapheme synaesthesia. Her debut collection, The language of bees, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2023, and she’s previously won both the Welsh International and Rialto Nature and Place poetry competitions as well as being shortlisted in several other competitions.
Rae's work has featured in a wide range of journals including Magma, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Acumen, Envoi, Poetry Ireland, Black Bough, Marble and The Cardiff Review, as well as in anthologies including The Result is What You See Today (Poetry Business) and A470 (Arachne Press). Howells's pamphlet Bloom and Bones, co-authored with Jean James, was published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2021. The language of bees is her first full collection.
In her day job, Rae is the Project Manager for NUJ Training Wales, a Welsh Government-funded journalism and media training scheme. A former journalist and hyperlocal newspaper editor, she has a PhD in journalism studies, specialising in local newspaper closures and the democratic deficit, and she co-authored the book Hyperlocal Journalism (Routledge, 2018). Rae is passionate about nature, the environment and the power of local communities. She grows lavender on the Gower Pensinsula and runs Gower Lavender, an eco-luxury cosmetic business. She is married to an archaeologist from Yorkshire and they have two daughters.
