Matthew Barton has published one collection of poetry, Learning to Row (Peterloo 1999) and a second collection is due out from Peterloo in spring 2008. He has compiled an anthology of poems for parents and children, The Winding Road (Hawthorn Press 2004), marking different stages and events of childhood. He has also written the libretto for a children's opera based on Genesis. Magazine publication credits include The Independent, London Magazine, Poetry London, TLS, Thumbscrew, The Southern Review (USA) and Resurgence. He has taught poetry and creative writing in a variety of settings, such as primary and secondary schools, a men's prison, and at university level, and has given many readings in London, Bristol and elsewhere. Awards include BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year, a Hawthornden Fellowship, an Arts Council Writer's Award and second prize in the National Poetry Competition.
Sally Coniam has been teaching since 1971. She has taught in a wide variety of settings, including FE colleges, universities and secondary schools. Her academic interests include Virginia Woolf, children's literature and the Romantic poets. She has published her own poems as well as articles on George Orwell and on Romanticism and disease.
Stephen Derry gained his PhD for a thesis on Jane Austen and eighteenth century fiction and has taught for a number of universities and colleges. He has edited a selection of George Crabbe's poems for the Everyman's Poetry series, has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals. Current interests include: the literature of place; the fin de siecle; American fiction; and popular genre writing, especially crime, science fiction and children's literature.
Sarah Duncan is a novelist and scriptwriter, and has written six non-fiction books. Her first novel, Adultery for Beginners (Hodder & Stoughton 2004), was shortlisted for the Joan Hessayon New Writer Award and has been published in eight countries. Her film, A Naked Eye, won Best Drama at the Portuguese International Film Festival and Gold Medal at the Houston International Film Festival. Her short stories have been widely published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, as well as being broadcast on Radio 4. Sarah has an MA in Creative Writing, is a member of the Society of Authors and is an experienced writing tutor. Sarah has recently published a second novel, Nice Girls Do (Headline 2006) and is currently working on a third for Headline.
Heather Dyer has published a picture book, Tina and the Penguin, and three novels for 7-12 year olds (The Fish in Room 11, The Girl with the Broken Wing, and The Boy in the Biscuit Tin). Her novels are all published by The Chicken House, a company founded by Barry Cunningham, the man who acquired Harry Potter for Bloomsbury. Heather's books have been described as being 'quality stand-alone novels which are hard to find for this age group', and have been broadcast on Radio 4 and translated into several languages. Awards include a Hawthornden Fellowship, the Highland Children's Book Award 2006, and the US Award for Humane and Environmental Education.
Patricia Ferguson, a qualified nurse and midwife, published her first novel, Family Myths and Legends, in 1985. It won the David Higham award, and shared the Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask prizes. Her second book was a collection of short stories about nursing and midwifery; the title story, "Indefinite Nights", was anthologised in The Penguin Book of Modern Women's Short Stories, edited by Susan Hill, in 1992. This book was recently re-published by Solidus Press. Other publications include Write To Me (1991) and Four Part Harmony (1995). A fifth book, It So Happens, was published by Solidus Press in June 2004 and was longlisted for the Orange Prize; Patricia talked about this book at the Bristol University Readers’ Day in 2005. Patricia's short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and she has run a number of creative writing workshops as part of the Bath Literature Festival. A new novel, Peripheral Vision, was published in 2007 and hailed by Lionel Shriver in The Telegraph as 'a pure pleasure to read'.
Louise Green has degrees in both English and American literature and has taught at Exeter University. In recent years she has led creative writing courses in a number of settings: colleges, women's groups, day centres, specialising in autobiography and writing for personal development. She has written feature articles for the national press, radio drama and short stories which have been broadcast on Radio 4.
Sandra Hopkins read English at King's College, London. She is the author of the chapter on Dickens in Problems for Feminist Criticism, ed. Sally Minogue (Routledge) and co-editor of Women in Love, an anthology in the Everyman's Poetry series. She has been a tutor in Lifelong Learning since 1977, a post which she has combined with school teaching, tutoring for the WEA and for the Open University. Her main interests are in Victorian, Modernist and contemporary fiction.
Sarah LeFanu has worked as a fiction editor with The Women's Press, and has edited six volumes of short stories, including Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll (1997). Sarah's own stories have been published in anthologies and textbooks. In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction appeared from Indiana University Press in 1989 and Writing Fantasy Fiction from A & C Black in 1996. Her most recent publication is the biography of Rose Macaulay (Virago Press 2003). Sarah has taught creative writing at the Hen House and at Ty Newydd; she is currently Director of the Bath Literature Festival.
Barbara Grodecka Lewis has degrees in French and English from the Universities of Durham and Oxford. Her MLitt thesis was on eighteenth–century French fiction. She has been a translator, a university administrator and, since 1993, a tutor in Lifelong Learning. Barbara has taught a literature class in Bath for eleven years. She is particularly interested in literature in translation.
Philip Lyons has taught English literature classes and run creative writing groups in many settings, including universities, prisons and psychiatric hospitals. Since completing a doctoral thesis on Literary and Theological Responses to the Holocaust in 1988, he has also worked as a nursing assistant, a counsellor and a community advisor. Philip is the author of two poetry pamphlets, Borrowed Time (Ozymandias Press 1995) and Rainy Day (Loxwood Stoneleigh 2003), and was a runner-up in the 1996 TLS/Poems on the Underground poetry competition. His poems have been published in a number of magazines, as well as broadcast on Radio Two and Radio Bristol. Philip has given various readings, including an appearance at the Wells Festival of Literature in 2003 and at the Thornbury Arts Festival in 2006. He has written articles on such diverse topics as prison education, teaching children about the Holocaust through literature, and writing autobiographical poetry.
Maria McCarthy is a freelance journalist for Cosmopolitan, Company, Red, Prima and other women’s magazines and has given talks on writing for publication at a number of literature festivals. Her first book, The Girl’s Guide to Losing Your L Plates - how to pass your driving test was published in 2007 by Simon and Schuster and generated considerable publicity including 25 radio interviews. Maria has run workshops on Publicising Your Book for the Society of Authors.
Shaun McCarthy is a published, produced and broadcast playwright and poet. Plays for stage include Driving to Midnight (Actors Centre, Covent Garden and Brighton Festival) London Isn't Venice (Mutiny Arts, touring), Frail Light in the Desert, See His Face and Honest: Untouchable (all Bristol Old Vic). Plays and adaptations for BBC Radios 3 and 4 include Fireworks and The Aran Islands. He was lyricist on the musical 14 Songs 2 Weddings and a Funeral, which won Barclays New Stages Best New Play Award 1999. He has recently directed youth theatre productions in Yorkshire, Poole and Bath. He has had five collections of poetry published in the UK, Europe and the US. He is currently working on a radio play, Sanctuary, for BBC Radio 4 and a film script The Visitors Books, a ghost story, for Devolution Films (NZ).
Christine O'Brien has been a translator (from French and Danish), an editor and a writer of non-fiction. Her published work for young people ranges from a sex guide targeted at adolescents to The Junior Wall Chart of World History. She has also worked as a teacher in special education. Christine has recently completed a novel for teenagers and is currently working on another for the 8-12 age group. She lectures in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University and leads a creative writing group in South Somerset. Christine also does editorial work and acts as a reader for The Chicken House, a children’s publisher.
Julie-ann Rowell has an MA in creative writing. She has had over fifty poems published in various magazines and anthologies. Convergence, her first collection, was awarded a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice in 2003. She has also won first prize in the Frogmore Poetry Competition 2005 (for 'The Loch at Harray') and was a runner-up in the 2006 Birdport Poetry Competition (for 'The Whole Red Sky'). Julie-ann has published a novel for older teenagers and adults, Sea Change.
Adrian Tinniswood is a full-time writer and the author of twelve books on social and architectural history. His most recent are His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren; and By Permission of Heaven: the Story of the Great Fire of London. He lectures extensively in Britain and the USA, and has discussed his work on The Today Programme, Start the Week, In Our Time and many other local and national radio programmes. Adrian has taught on the Diploma since the course started in 1995.
Claire Williamson has an MA in Literary Studies and a Certificate in Counselling. She has been a teacher of creative writing since 1993. Claire has two slim volumes of poetry (French Connections and Blind Peeping) and has toured nationally her poems (POTA Press) and short stories (Words Allowed). Her most recent undertaking has been as a librettist for Welsh National Opera. Claire has worked for Poetry Can and The Poetry Slam since 1995 and has taught in a variety of community settings including schools, prisons, learning difficulties centres and addiction recovery trusts. Claire recently wrote a poem ("A Lifetime Burning in Every Moment") for North Devon Arts Trail and a bench inscription for Walcot Street in Bath, with local residents. Claire is a member of LAPIDUS (Literary Arts in Personal Development) and is intrigued by the therapeutic effects of writing. She is currently working on her first novel and a new collection of poems.