Moira Andrew was born and educated in Scotland, she now lives and works in Cornwall. She is a former head teacher, college lecturer and part-time tutor in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan, and an author of numerous books for primary teachers, including Language in Colour and Paint a Poem (Belair/Folens). Her poetry for children has been published by OUP, Nelson, Scholastic, Macmillan, Collins etc. Her poetry for an adult audience includes Light the Blue Touch Paper (Iron Press, 1986 & 1989), Fresh out of Dragonflies (Headlock Press, 1995), This Year, Next Year (Marvin Katz Press, 2004) and Firebird (Indigo Dreams, 2011). Moira also has a new collection for children, Wish a Wish (Poetry Space) this summer. Visit Moira's website for more information.
Carol Rifka Brunt is a New Yorker now based in Devon with her husband and three children. In 2006, she was selected for the New Writing Partnership’s New Writing Ventures award. In 2007, she received a generous Arts Council grant to write Tell the Wolves I’m Home, her first novel. She is currently working on short stories, essays and the beginnings of a new novel. Follow Carol on twitter @Carolrifka Facebook: www.facebook.com/TellTheWolvesImHome
Rosie Jackson writes poetry, stories, novels andcreative non-fiction. Based near Frome, Somerset, she runs popular creative writing workshops in the UK and internationally, with a special interest in taking creative writing and art into health care. Her work for REACH Dorset 2009-10 generated the moving images on the left and many of the pictures in the photo section. She also works with art, ceramics and photography. She has recently had a residency at Cheltenham Art Gallery and in October 2012 is writer in residence for Bridport's Open Book Week. A founding member of Knucklebone Poets, a group in Bath, she regularly performs her work in Bath and the South West and writes a column for Tears in the Fence.
Sara-Jane Arbury lives in Bristol. She has been involved in performance poetry and the promotion of live literature for many years, collaborating with organisations including the Arts Council, BBC, Oxford University Press and Bloodaxe Books. She has undertaken writing commissions and residencies and worked as the Voices Off Director at Cheltenham Literature Festival. Sara-Jane is the co-founder of Spiel Unlimited, a partnership with writer and raconteur Marcus Moore that aims to take the ‘spoken word, written word, anywhere, everywhere’. Spiel host a comprehensive annual programme of nationwide adult and youth poetry slams in schools, prisons, libraries and festivals. Sara-Jane has also toured in various spoken word shows including The Truth Is Optional, Staying Alive (Bloodaxe Books) and most recently, a multi-media performance poetry and prose production, 'FLASH'.
Bereaved herself, Ann Gray has tried to make sense of loss in a book-length sequence, At the Gate. As a nurse, she owns and runs a Home in Cornwall caring for people with differing degrees of dementia. As a writer, she has published 4 collections of poetry, the most recent in 2008, has an MA in Creative Writing from Plymouth University, and her poem 'Joy' was shortlisted for the National Poetry Competition 2010.
Deborah Gregory trained at The Drama Studio, London and worked as an actress for many years, in theatre, film, TV and on the radio. She won a writing competition run by South West Arts and changed careers, achieving an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University as part of this transition. She has run creative writing classes for adults who were starting out as authors, has had many poems published in magazines, and won several writing competitions with her short stories and monologues.
Her first novel The Cornflake House was published by Picador in the UK and her subsequent novels The Better Part and Dancing With The Dead were published by Solidus.
Annie McKie is a Newsreader and Announcer for BBC Radio 4. Initially she trained as an actor and a speech and drama teacher at the Central School. During her career she's coached people of all ages in voice production and presentation skills. She's been a voice trainer and adviser within the BBC and taught all aspects of voice and communication skills at one of the best known and most prestigious schools in the country. For the last twelve years Annie's devoted much of my time to writing fiction. She's been shortlisted for two national fiction prizes, the runner up in one.
Babs Horton was born in 1953 in Tredegar, South Wales. Babs has taught in many Plymouth Secondary Schools and her last job was at Plymouth Hospital School working as a teacher at the Young People's Centre. She took up a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellowship at Plymouth University in September 2007. Babs' first book, A Jarful of Angels, won the Pendleton May First Novel Award and she was short-listed for the Authors Club Award. Dandelion Soup was published in 2004, Wildcat Moon in 2006 and her new novel, Recipes for Cherubs, has now been published.
Patrick Ryan has worked as a teacher and professional storyteller for over thirty years. He regularly tours Britain, Europe and the US performing, lecturing and conducting a variety of workshops. Patrick has written for the BBC and has also actively participated in several major storytelling projects, among them: 'Living Stories of the World', a multi-cultural workshop for primary children in inner and outer London, and 'Writing Together', the resident storyteller for a NAWE project with writers resident in nine schools, primary and secondary, across England every term for 3 years; the impact of writer and storyteller residencies on pupils' learning and development and teachers' methodology was monitored and a major study presented to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority with recommendations for future planning of residencies
Chris Redmond is a writer, performer and musician. His spoken word has been featured on BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Four, XFM and Sky Arts. He’s performed at London’s Southbank, Koko, Shepherds Bush Empire (with Tom Baxter), Soho Theatre (with Ben Okri), London Word Festival, Bristol Poetry Festival, Bridport Poetry Festival, Kosmpopolis literature festival in Barcelona, and music festivals; Latitude, Glastonbury, The Big Chill and Bestival. Chris’s first solo-show ‘The Lost Menagerie’ was commissioned by BAC. In 2012 he directed and co-produced (with renaissance one) a series of Tongue Fu films and animations commissioned for TheSpace.org featuring his own work and that of Scroobius Pip, Kate Tempest, Salena Godden, Zena Edwards and Shane Solanki.
Josephine Corcoran was born in Southport, Lancashire and grew up there and, from the age of 12, in south London. She now lives in West Wiltshire with her husband and their two children. Josephine started writing seriously when she was a mature student studying English at Chichester University where she was taught by, among others, the writers Vicki Feaver and Alison MacLeod. In 1997 she completed a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she was taught by Eva Hoffman and Andrew Motion, among others. She is an experienced teacher of Creative Writing in places of Higher and Adult Education and she runs Writing Workshops in community settings and schools.
Tina Orr Munro is a freelance journalist and writer. She lives in North Devon with her husband, four children and Wilfie, the dog. Tina's Debut novel, Ellie Foster's English Coursework, was published in 2011.
Cliff Yates is a freelance poet, writer and workshop leader. He has worked in many schools, and is the author of the Poetry Society's Jumpstart Poetry in Secondary School. He worked as an English teacher for many years, and has won various awards for his writing.
Phil Bowen is a poet, performer, biographer, and playwright. He had worked in over 500 schools in more than 30 counties. His most recent book for children in Cuckoo Rock (Salt).
