Authors
Amadou and Mariam
Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia met at an institute for young blind people in Bamako, Mali, and fell in love both musically and romantically. Following several years of performing and releasing cassettes in the their native West Africa, they went on to become stars of the international stage with a string of best selling albums.
Anne Caldwell
Anne is the editor of Some Girls’ Mothers, which also features her story ‘Visit to the Psychotherapist’. Her first poetry collection Slug Language was published in 2008 by Happenstance.
Anthony Cropper
Anthony Cropper is the author of the short story collection Nature’s Magician and has published two novels, Jack and Sal and Weatherman. He has co-edited three collections of short stories, Next Stop Hope, Naked City and Wonderwall. In 2005 his play, I’ll Tell You About Love, won the BBC Alfred Bradley Award for Radio Drama.
Char March
Char March is an award-winning poet, playwright and short fiction writer. She grew up in the 1960s and ’70s in Central Scotland. Char now divides her time between her 82-year-old mum’s (in the NW Highlands) and her own home in the Yorkshire Pennines. Her story ‘The Importance of Tea and Rabbits’ features in Some Girls’ Mothers and ‘Muff-Diving Over The Fish Market’ in Naked City. www.charmarch.co.uk
Clare Shaw
Clare Shaw is described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘probably the best, most electrifying, new young reader on the circuit’. Clare grew up in Burnley, spent ten years in Liverpool and now lives in West Yorkshire with her partner, her daughter and various geriatric cats. Her first poetry collection, Straight Ahead, was published by Bloodaxe in 2006. She is widely known for her work and publications around women’s mental health, and is co-director in a self-harm training partnership.
Dave Pescod
Dave Pescod studied visual arts and began writing jokes for radio and television. More recently after completing a Royal Literary Fund Mentor scheme he started writing prose. He has had stories published in magazines and broadcast on Radio 4. His debut collection All Embracing and Other Stories is published by Route.
His storie feature in Bonne Route and The Route Book at Bedtime.
Haifa Zangana
Haifa Zangana is an author and activist. She has published three novels and four collections of short stories. She is a founding member of International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (IACIS); co-founder of Women Solidarity for an Independent and Unified Iraq and was an advisor for the UNDP report ‘Towards the rise of women in the Arab world’ (2005). She is a weekly columnist for Al Quds Al Arabi, contributes to British and US papers, and lectures regularly on Iraqi literature and women’s issues.
Herta Müller
Herta Müller was born in 1953 in the German-speaking town Nitzkydorf in Banat, Romania. Her father had served in the Waffen SS during World War II and her mother spent five years in a work camp in present-day Ukraine. Many years later, in Atemschaukel (2009), Müller was to depict the exile of the German Romanians in the Soviet Union. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009.
IcÃar BollaÃn
IcÃar BollaÃn is an acclaimed film director and actress. She was noiminated for a Goya award for best actress for her role in Leo (2000) and won a Goya for Best Director for her film Te doy mis ojos (Take My Eyes) (2003). She directed her partner Paul Laverty’s script ‘Tambien la Lluvia’ (Even the Rain) (2011) which has received wide acclaim throughout the world.
Idrissa Keïta
Idrissa Keïta was born in 1960 in Bamako, Mali. He is a writer, illustrator and musician. He has published several children’s books in French and two collections of poetry in German.