Born in Lancashire, a stone’s throw from the infamous witches’ cairn on Pendle Hill, SANDIE ZAND was educated at the local grammar school where she excelled in English, Art, History and Detention. After long spells in Scotland (Glasgow and then the Ayrshire coast) and Hampshire (Southampton), she now lives and writes in Shropshire – distressingly far from the sea, but the people are wonderful, the scenery beautiful and the history alluring.
Sandie has had short stories published in the Words to Music (2011) collection and has appeared as a guest author for the Year Zero collective. Her début novel The Sky is not Blue was published by Mad Bear Books in 2013. Her second novel, The Town that Danced is a work in progress. She blogs at www.sandiezand.com and can also be found, sporadically, on Twitter. She finds talking about herself in the third person very therapeutic.
I’m PENELOPE SIMPSON, an apprentice poet, translator of poems and now of flash
fiction too. I belong to Shrewsbury Stanza group, Shrewsbury Flash Fiction and
attend Shrewsbury Coffee House Poetry Café. I’m also still connected (though
not currently a very active member) with Diversify and Word Distillery, poetry
groups in Aberystwyth linked to Chinwag spoken word evenings at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, where I’ve read with
them. I’m also learning a lot from John Lindley’s poetry class group at
Sandbach who read at John’s open mic evenings in De Lacey’s, Congleton.
GEOFF RODGERS is a singer and songwriter, originally from the North East, now living in Shropshire. A storyteller and performer, just starting out on the Short Story road.
PETER SHILSTON studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge and worked as a teacher & tutor of History and Political Philosophy at Wellington College in Berkshire and at Reading University. He is married, retired and living in Shrewsbury.
Most of his published work has been sports journalism, mostly on gymnastics, but he has also published a novel for children and a few ghost stories and travel articles. He appeared on TV “Mastermind” in 1981, answering questions on American gangsters. These days he's mostly blogging, either on petergshilstonsblog.blogspot.
STEPHEN LOVEJOY grew up in Shropshire and is currently a Masters student at Manchester School of Architecture. He first got into writing when encouraged to start-up a student magazine whilst at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. It wasn't long before his love of literature drew him to have a stab at writing fiction.
PAULINE FISK is the Smarties Prize winning author of eleven novels for young adults. She has been a published author for over forty years. She is also a blogger and her one year blog on Shrewsbury, My Tonight From Shrewsbury, was published as a book in autumn 2014 under the title 'Behind Closed Doors in an English Country Town'. Pauline's last novel, In The Trees, published by Faber & Faber, saw her travelling out to the jungles of Belize, courtesy of an Arts Council grant, to research the modern rite of passage which is gap year volunteering. For more about her books, see www.paulinefisk.co.uk
LISA OLIVER facilitates Creative Writing workshops in primary schools and with groups of home-educated children in Cheshire and South Manchester. Lisa has an MA (distinction) in Creative Writing from Keele University. She is currently submitting her first novel, The Girl with the Thorn in Her Side, to literary agents and publishers. Lisa has had short stories and poems published in a variety of magazines and webzines. She also runs the found poetry website, www.thefoundpoetryplace.wordpress.com.
CAROL CAFFREY [left] has been a teacher
and professional actress in the past and describes herself as an L-plated
writer now. She writes mainly
poetry and short stories, but has the odd television script and miscellaneous
first three chapters lurking about in her files. A recent piece was a runner-up in the Fish Flash Fiction
competition and will be published in its 2013 Anthology. She is currently doing a crime novel
course with Aberystwyth University’s Lifelong Learning programme.
Adrian Perks works for Shropshire Museums Service where he likes to raise the profile of creative writing in a public forum. He is currently working on his dissertation for an MA in Creative Writing. Specialising in poetry, Adrian thinks in lines, and dreams of paper.
BARRY TENCH: I work as a Front-of-House manager at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. My writing career began in the late 1990’s when I began to get published in local and national magazines. I have a MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths 2007-08. Short listed for the Hamish Canham 2007, 2nd prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Competition 2008. My writing is informed by film, music, art and diverse influences ranging from Larkin to John Ashbery.
BARRY TENCH: I work as a Front-of-House manager at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. My writing career began in the late 1990’s when I began to get published in local and national magazines. I have a MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths 2007-08. Short listed for the Hamish Canham 2007, 2nd prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Competition 2008. My writing is informed by film, music, art and diverse influences ranging from Larkin to John Ashbery.
http://baztench.wordpress.com/
NATHALIE HILDEGARDE LIEGE: Born and bred in the South-East suburbs of Paris, advised by teachers Madam Bourdon and Madam Lievens to choose literature for my A Level, by my parents to choose economy, as I wished to choose crafts or photography. I had to study economy and still chose Fine Arts in Sorbonne where I found great interest in poetry writing, theology or ethnology too.
I present myself as an artist, but before all I am Nathalie Hildegarde "touche-à-tout" or a manifold being.
I followed Joseph Beuys' point of view: "social sculpture", Andrei Tarkovsky's idea of "Sculpting in Time" and the artwork of Louise Bourgeois as well as Cathedrals windows unfolded for real my love for light and glass. I apply to my artwork my chosen scheme of technical and aesthetical research inspired by many sources.
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers & Painters of Glass Journeymans' Award 1998-2000, Couleurlive Studio owner, days are ongoing creations.
NATHALIE HILDEGARDE LIEGE: Born and bred in the South-East suburbs of Paris, advised by teachers Madam Bourdon and Madam Lievens to choose literature for my A Level, by my parents to choose economy, as I wished to choose crafts or photography. I had to study economy and still chose Fine Arts in Sorbonne where I found great interest in poetry writing, theology or ethnology too.
I present myself as an artist, but before all I am Nathalie Hildegarde "touche-à-tout" or a manifold being.
I followed Joseph Beuys' point of view: "social sculpture", Andrei Tarkovsky's idea of "Sculpting in Time" and the artwork of Louise Bourgeois as well as Cathedrals windows unfolded for real my love for light and glass. I apply to my artwork my chosen scheme of technical and aesthetical research inspired by many sources.
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers & Painters of Glass Journeymans' Award 1998-2000, Couleurlive Studio owner, days are ongoing creations.
