Hatty Nestor

Background

Dr Hatty Nestor is a poet, nonfiction writer and critic. Working across these genres, her work explores questions of art, ethics, and feminism, to confront contemporary issues related to gender and justice. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching interests focus on marginalised voices and questions of memorialisation and archives, as demonstrated in her forthcoming book that explores the legacy of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta.

Her first book Ethical Portraits: In Search of Representational Justice was published in 2021 by Zer0 Books, and uncovered forms of representation in the US criminal justice system. It investigates the representation of the incarcerated in the United States criminal justice system. Through wide-ranging interviews and creative nonfiction, it explores the roles of prison portraiture, such as courtroom sketches, DNA profiling, and the incarceration of Chelsea Manning. It was supported by Art Council England’s National Lottery Project Grant. The Aching Poem was also published in 2021 by Boise State Press, and documented states of chronic pain, health care services and gendered experiences of the body.

Hatty’s writing has appeared in Frieze, The Times Literary Supplement, Granta, Tribune, The White Review, and many other publications. She has also been commissioned by galleries in the UK and abroad for exhibition texts and interviews, including The Royal College of Art and Stems, Brussels. Prior to Reading, Hatty held positions at Birkbeck University of London, The Glasgow School of Art, and the Sandberg Instiuut, been a visiting fellow at The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and MACBA, Barcelona, and worked as a lead researcher on the AHRC-funded Feminist Queer Archives group at Goldsmiths College. She has run writing workshops at several art galleries and cultural institutions such as the ICA and Jerwood Arts and has been a writer in residence at organisations including CCA in Glasgow, Cove Park, Scotland, Jerwood Arts, London.