Biography

Fokkina McDonnell now lives in The Netherlands. Her poems have been broadcast, widely anthologised, published online and in a range of magazines. She has three poetry collections (Another life, Oversteps Books Ltd, 2016; Nothing serious, nothing dangerous, Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd, 2019, Remembering / Disease, Broken Sleep Books, 2022) and a pamphlet A Stolen Hour (Grey Hen Press, 2020). Fokkina received a Northern Writers’ Award from New Writing North in 2020 for the manuscript of Remembering / Disease.

She has a special interest in haiku, tanka and collaborative poetry and is a reviewer for Presence magazine.

Social Media

Twitter: @FokkinaM
Facebook: Fokkina McDonnell
Instagram: fokkinanl

Personal/Career

I settled in the UK in 1973, having met my husband when we both worked on P&O ships. After his early death, I studied Psychology at Southampton University. Then I moved to Sheffield where I gained a MA in Occupational Psychology. I worked briefly in local government, as a University lecturer and for a large management consultancy firm. In the 1990s I retrained and for over 20 years practised as a UKCP registered psychotherapist and an accredited EMDR Consultant.
I closed my practice late 2017 to have more time and energy for my writing. I never imagined that I would leave the UK. Brexit and the pandemic made for a change of mind. I returned to live in The Netherlands autumn 2021.

Why the giraffe? 

The giraffe has been my totem animal for over 30 years. I bought the domain name in the early 1990s. Giraffes have roamed the savannahs for millions of years. A highly social animal it is able to defend itself: a kick could kill a lion.