In 1993, she moved to Wales, where after completing her studies in Cardiff, she became a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.
[2] She became Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, while undertaking research into theories of the body and the history of anatomy, contemporary literature and poetry.
[3] Atkinson has published three poetry collections: Kink and Particle (2006), Catulla et al (2011), and So Many Moving Parts (2014).
Writing in The Guardian, Patrict McGuinness welcomes the collection as being "in the finest tradition of creative adaptation: keeping the originals as ballast, but unafraid to sail off on their own tangents.
"[7] So Many Moving Parts, depicting the awkward relationship of body and spirit and their sometimes surprising practical effects, won the Roland Mathias Poetry Award in 2015.