Vik’s most recent publication is a collection of surreal prose poems, Some Deer (Broken Sleep, 2024), which was selected as January 2025 ‘Book of the Month’ in Gutter: Magazine of new Scottish and International of Writing. Editor Sean Wai Keung, reviewing it, named her a “Surrealist Extraordinaire” also saying:

“Shirley is adept at showing us both the frivolous nature of language and also how unsettling language can be. Some Deer challenges the reader to rethink their own relationships with language and nature, but also to laugh at the absurdity of those relationships.”

Earlier in 2024, Vik was published by two Canadian presses; One by One (No Press), an Oulipian collaboration with the poet Bob Brightt, and her ekphrastic chapbook, poems written in response to band practice tapes from 20 years ago, Cassette Poems (above/ground).

Notes from the Underworld (Sublunary Editions), featuring illustrations by Joshua Rothes, was published in Autumn 2023, as was her box set of postcards Strangers Wave: Joy Division Photo Poems (zimZalla). Poets (The Red Ceilings) and Grotesquerie for the Apocalypse (Beir Bua) were published in 2022.

Her first full-length collection of surreal/experimental poetry, The Continued Closure of the Blue Door (HVTN) was published in 2021 as was her first book of photo poetry, Disrupted Blue and other poems on Polaroid (Hesterglock). Her chapbook, Corpses (Sublunary Editions), which established her as a master of “grim comedy” was published in March 2020.

Vik’s creative and critical work has appeared in the following magazines, journals and anthologies in the UK, US and beyond:

Magazines and Journals: The Rialto, Magma, Shearsman, 3am, Perverse, Tentacular, Gutter, Confingo, Anthropocene, Molly Bloom, Erotoplasty, Burning House Press, The Fortnightly Review, M58, #Ranger, Tears in the Fence, Stride, Litter, HVTN, Adjacent Pineapple, Babel Tower Notice Board, Minor Literature[s], The Lincoln Review, The AI Literary Review, The Indianapolis Review, Rejection Letters, Gone Lawn, Tiny Molecules, periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, talking about strawberries all of the time, PN Review, Poetry London, Tentacular, Exacting Clam, SPAM, Mercurius, Firmament & The Minute Review.

Anthologies: The Surreal-Absurd, (Mercurius, 2025) (also co-editor), Objects (Dunlin Press, 2024), Pink Witch (Main Point Books, 2024), Hauntings (Poem Atlas, 2023), Dreaming Awake: New Contemporary Prose Poetry from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, eds. Peter Johnson and Cassandra Atherton (MadHat Press, 2023), Obliterat, (2022), Aww-Struck, eds. Isabel Galleymore and Caroline Harris (Poem Atlas, 2021), Photo Poetry Surfaces, (Hesterglock) Writing Utopia, eds. Sarer Scotthorne and Sally-Shakti Willow (Hesterglock, 2020), Virtual Oasis, ed. Dan Power (Trickhouse Press, 2021) It All Radiates Outwards, ed. Luke Kennard (Verve, 2020), Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities: Bristol, ed. Paul Hawkins (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2020).

Vik’s editorial career started on the prose poetry team for US journal Pithead Chapel in 2019. In 2020, following on from the publication of Corpses, Vik joined Sublunary Editions as Associate Editor. This role included helping select manuscripts for publication, as well as editing books. After being selected to feature in the Surreal-Absurd series herself, Vik joined the Mercurius team in 2021. They have just published the first print anthology of the online series The Surreal Absurd (2025).

Having performed Seattle, Los Angeles, Prague and Paris, Vik is a regular at the European Poetry Festival and has performed at various venues around London including the National Poetry Library. In Manchester she has performed at the International Anthology Burgess Foundation and at Peter Barlow’s Cigarette. In Bristol, Spike Island and the Arnolfini to name a couple.

Vik has collaborated with poets and performers from Switzerland, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia. She collaborated with SPAM editors and poets for a one-off poetry-play performance with live improvisation group, anoraq, for Inside Voices at the legendary King Tuts in Glasgow.

She was recently commissioned for the Arts-Council funded project, Sleeve Notes, to collaborate with the musician Billy Fuller for Record Store Day 2025. Their track was played on BBC 6 Music by Marc Riley.

Vik’s photo poetry has been exhibited at Touching/Reading exhibition, curated by Astra Papachristodoulou in Malmö, Sweden, in 2024 and at the Photo Poetry Surfaces exhibition, Bristol, UK, curated by Paul Hawkins, Astra Papachristodoulou and David Solo in 2021.

Vik’s work has been translated into Czech and Latvian.

Vik is also director of Disrupted Blue Indie Press Publicity.