Artists
| David Ashford is Poetry Coordinator and a lecturer in English at the University of Surrey. Since 2008 David has organised the October Morag Morris Poetry Lecture. He has introduced the Surrey New Year Poetry Reading, and is co-organiser, with the poet-in-residence, of the annual Surrey Poetry Festival. His recent publications include poems in HiZero, This Corner, The Surrey Festival Anthology, and Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot; he has work forthcoming with Veer Books and Crater Press. David is the founder and publisher of Contraband Books, an independent press dedicated to innovative and experimental poetry. www.contrabandbooks.co.uk |  |
| Michael Bedo is currently working on a creative writing PhD project at the University of Surrey. His work takes the form of a Neo-Victorian novel. Everything Michael writes is automatically pulled back to the past. Previously Michael has worked in publishing, editing historical fiction, and he was also employed by the children’s literacy charity, First Story, which sends writers into challenging secondary schools to run writing workshops. |  |
| Liam Murray Bell was born in Orkney, and brought up in Glasgow. After studying for a degree in English Literature with Creative Writing at Queen’s University, Belfast, he returned to Scotland to write for his Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University, before moving to the South of England to write his first novel 'So It Is', published in June 2012, and to research for a PhD at the University of Surrey. His second novel examines contemporary politics, the music industry and the Occupy movement and is part-funded by the Arts Council. It will be published by Myriad Editions in Spring 2014. |  |
| Samantha Haywood is a literary agent who specialises in international publishing and has over 15 years’ experience selling primarily Canadian authors at home and abroad for volume publication and film/tv representation. Samantha launched her client list with the Transatlantic in 2004 after working in the foreign rights departments of Random House of Canada Ltd and Westwood Creative Artists. She represents a diverse and vibrant client list of authors, ranging from award-winning and bestselling fiction (novels and stories) to narrative nonfiction writers (investigative journalists and memoirs) and she has a passion for graphic novels. Samantha also handles foreign rights for independent publishers such as Drawn & Quarterly. |  |
| Holly Luhning is a novelist, poet, and scholar. The National Post described her debut novel, Quiver (HarperCollins) as “fast, wicked, and dark” and the Globe and Mail selected it as one of the best books of 2011. She has received a Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s Arts Award and her poetry collection, Sway (Thistledown) was nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award. Her creative work has appeared in various journals, anthologies, and on radio, and she has published scholarly articles on eighteenth-century print culture and literature. She is a lecturer of Creative Writing at the University of Surrey and the Director of the Surrey New Writers Festival. www.hollyluhning.com |  |
| Alison MacLeod is a novelist, short story writer and essayist. She is the author of two novels, The Changeling (Macmillan) and The Wave Theory of Angels (Penguin). Her third novel, Unexploded, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in 2013. Her stories have also been widely published in the UK and abroad, and broadcast on the BBC. In 2008 she was awarded the Society of Authors' Prize for short fiction, in 2011 she was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award for ‘The Heart of Denis Noble’, and in 2012 she was longlisted for The International Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. MacLeod is also the author of the story collection Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction (Penguin) and is currently completing her second collection. She is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester and Director of THRESHOLDS International Short Story Forum. |  |
| Alwyn Marriage's seven books include poetry and non-fiction. She is widely published in magazines and anthologies and reads at literary festivals and other events in Britain and abroad. She used to lecture in Philosophy at Surrey University, and has also been chief executive of two literacy and literature NGOs, Editor of a journal, environmental consultant and an international Rockefeller Scholar. She is now Managing Editor of Oversteps Books, and holds a research fellowship at Surrey. |  |
| Karen McCarthy Woolf writes poetry, drama and short fiction for print, online, broadcast and live platforms. She is the editor of two critically acclaimed anthologies Bittersweet: Black Women's Contemporary Poetry (The Women's Press) and Kin (Serpent's Tail). She is also an associate editor at the international literary journal Wasafiri, on the editorial board of Magma magazine and reviews for Modern Poetry in Translation. Her play Dido (2005) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, her poetry has appeared in Ten New Poets (Bloodaxe), and her poetry chapbook The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers (2006) was selected as a New Statesman Book of the Year. Karen has been the writer in residence at the Museum of Garden History and literature development agency Spread the Word and has taught creative writing for a variety of agencies including The Photographers' Gallery, City Lit, and the Southbank Centre. www.karenmccarthy.co.uk |  |
Cornelius Medvei is the author of Mr Thundermug and Caroline. He lives in London. |  |
| Tim Miles is a former BBC comedy writer, having written for a number of radio and television shows. He is currently completing his PhD on stand-up comedy, having been awarded a doctoral scholarship by the university of Surrey, and will occasionally be found performing stand-up comedy in London and Surrey. He sits on the editorial board of Comedy Studies, and has published a number of academic articles on comedy, including ones on comedy and the erotic, and on comic responses to ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. He has recently submitted a proposal to the BBC to make a radio documentary called ‘A History of Laughter’, and is currently writing a comedy for the stage based on his experiences as a fund-raiser for the Labour party when he worked above a telephone sex-line company (he promises he is not making this up). |  |
| Stephen Mooney is a lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Surrey, as well as at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he is part of the organising committee of the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre (CPRC) there. He is a poet, part of the performative poetry grouping 'London Under Construction', and one of the editors of the small poetry press Veer Books. He is the co-editor of the Readings web journal and co-assistant editor of the PORES web journal, as well as reviews editor for the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry and the UK editor of VLAK Magazine. His poetry has appeared in various places and web-places, and he is the author of DCLP (Veer Books, 2008) and co-author of Shuddered (Veer Books, 2010). |  |
| Chris Stevens is a best-selling author and app designer. He is the creator of the book-apps Alice For the iPad, featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and Alice In New York. Chris is the author of Appillionaires: Secrets from Developers Who Struck It Rich in the App Store (Wylie, 2011), the CEO of digital book publisher Atomic Antelope, and a founder of CMA Megacorp, an apps and games corporation. Currently, he is developing several apps, video games, a screenplay, and he is at work on his first novel. Twitter: @CMA_Megacorp |  |
| Garrett Turner, a proud native of Florence, Alabama, graduated from Emory University in 2011 majoring in Music and Creative Writing. Garrett took on many roles at Emory including singer, actor, dancer, playwright, and spoken word artist. As a Robert Woodruff Scholar and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, he served as Musical Director of AHANA A Cappella and had two original plays produced in Atlanta. Upon graduating, Garrett won the Bobby Jones Scholarship to study abroad at the University of St Andrews in 2011-2012. Currently, Garrett holds a Marshall Scholarship and is pursuing an MA in Theatre and Performance from Queen Mary, University of London. |  |
| Unicorn Lazers (Chris Stevens, Dominic Stevens, Bart Harris) have attracted a dedicated following through their live shows in London and throughout southeast England. The Lazers’ edgy rock is complicated by a folk sensibility and provocative lyrics, along with infectious melodies reminiscent of classic pop songs. Their music has been hailed as ‘bold’, ‘smart’, and ‘beyond radio-worthy’ by their fans. The Unicorn Lazers are at work recording their debut album, 'Rainbow Ponies'. www.unicornlazers.com |  |
| Veer Books is a UK based small press specialising in innovative and experimental writings in poetry and poetics, and operates in association with the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre (CPRC), Birkbeck, University of London. We have published over 60 books and pamphlets since our inception in 2003, as well as two poetry journals, including work by Maggie O’Sullivan, Eric Mottram, Bruce Andrews, Robert Fitterman, Adrian Clarke, Steve McCaffery, Jerome Rothenberg, Bill Griffiths, Alice Notley, Sean Bonney, Jow Lindsay, Johan de Wit, Lawrence Upton, Jennifer Pike Cobbing, Jeff Hilson, Out To Lunch. www.veerbooks.com |  |
| Paul Vlitos is the author of two very funny novels, Welcome to the Working Week (2007) and Every Day is Like Sunday (2008, both Orion). The Telegraph describes him as ‘a witty writer’ whose work is ‘curiously gripping’, while the New Statesmen complimented his ‘easy comic touch’. His critical writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Modern Language Review and Victorian Literature and Culture. His PhD examined the relationship between eating and identity in a range of postcolonial fiction. He has since taught at institutions including Goldsmiths and Tohoku University, Japan. He is programme director for English Literature with Creative Writing at the University of Surrey. |  |