Nicholas Royle is the author of five short story collections – Mortality, Ornithology, The Dummy, London Gothic and Manchester Uncanny – and seven novels, most recently First Novel. He has edited thirty anthologies and is series editor of Best British Short Stories for Salt, who published his books-about-books, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector and Shadow Lines: Searching For the Book Beyond the Shelf. In 2009 he founded Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories in chapbook format. Forthcoming, from Confingo Publishing, is Paris Fantastique, and Finders, Keepers: The Secret Life of Second-hand Books (Salt).Jenn Ashworth’s first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. On the publication of her second, Cold Light, she was listed by the BBC’s The Culture Show as one of the UK’s twelve best new writers. Her third novel, The Friday Gospels, is currently being adapted for television. She teaches creative writing at Lancaster University and is one of the co-founders of Curious Tales, a writer-led performance and publishing collective.Tom Bromley is an author, editor, creative writing tutor and ghostwriter. His books include ten works of fiction and non-fiction under his own name, and a further fifteen ghostwritten titles, including prize-winners and bestsellers. He has taught novel writing for the Faber Academy since 2013, is Director of Fiction for the Professional Writing Academy and in 2017 founded the Salisbury Literary Festival. He writes a weekly column, ‘Word Up’, for various newspapers in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and reviews fiction for the regional Living Magazines. He lives in Salisbury.Sarah Butler explores the relationship between writing and place through prose, poetry and participatory projects. Recent writing residencies include writer-in-residence on the Central line; at Great Ormond Street Hospital; and Tideline – a public art project linked to a major regeneration project in Belvedere, East London. She has two novels published by Picador: Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love and Before The Fire www.sarahbutler.org.uk www.urbanwords.org.ukAJ Dalton is an international author with Gollancz Orion. His novels include The Book of Orm, Empire of the Saviours, Gateway of the Saviours, and Tithe of the Saviours. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and lives with his cat Cleopatra. He was born in Croydon. He maintains the website www.ajdalton.eu.Stella Duffy has written thirteen novels including her latest, The Purple Shroud. The Room of Lost Things and State of Happiness were long-listed for the Orange Prize. She won the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2002 (Martha Grace) and 2013 (Come Away With Me), and Stonewall Writer of the Year in 2008 (The Room of Lost Things) and 2010 (Theodora). She has reviewed for The Review Show (BBC2), Front Row (BBCRadio4) and written articles for most major newspapers in the UK. In addition to her writing work she is a theatre director and performer.Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, was published in 2012 by Chatto & Windus and was the winner of the Scottish First Book Award while also being shortlisted for the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Award, Guardian First Book Award, Green Carnation Prize, Authors’ Club First Novel Prize and the Polari First Book Prize. Her second novel, Thirst, was published in 2014.Toby Litt grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. He is the author of four collections of stories and eight novels. His latest book of stories is Life-Like, published by Seagull Press. Toby’s completion of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel, Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade, is due from Vertigo in September 2015. He teaches creative writing at Birkbeck College. His website is at www.tobylitt.com.Livi Michael is an award-winning writer of books for adults, young adults and children. Her short stories have been widely published in various places including Granta, The Lonely Crowd and the Manchester Review. Her play, Singers Not Sinners was performed in Oldham in 2022. She has taught creative writing in various universities and was Programme Leader of the MA in Publishing at Manchester Metropolitan University.James Miller was born in London in 1976. He is the author of two novels – Lost Boys and Sunshine State – and numerous short stories. With a PhD in African-American Literature and Civil Rights, he teaches creative writing at Kingston University.Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year. Her short fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Born in Manchester in 1971, she lives near Nottingham with her husband Dan and son Arthur.Mark Morris has written over twenty-five novels, including Toady, Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Fiddleback, The Deluge and four books in the popular Doctor Who range. He is also the author of two short story collections, Close to the Bone and Long Shadows, Nightmare Light, and several novellas. His short fiction, articles and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of Cinema Macabre, a book of horror movie essays by genre luminaries for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award, its follow-up Cinema Futura, and The Spectral Book of Horror Stories.Leone Ross is a novelist, short story writer and editor. Her fiction has been nominated for the Women’s Prize, Goldsmiths Prize, RSL Ondjaate Prize and Edge Hill Prize, among others, and ‘When We Went Gallivanting’ won the Manchester Fiction Prize in 2022. She has taught creative writing for more than 20 years, and worked as a journalist throughout the 1990s. She is editor of Glimpse, the first Black British anthology of speculative fiction (Peepal Tree Press, 2022). Her third novel, This One Sky Day aka Popisho, is published in paperback by Faber & Faber and Picador USA. In 2023, she was named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Graeme Shimmin was born in Manchester, and studied Physics at Durham University. His successful consultancy career enabled him to retire at 35 to an island off Donegal and start writing. He has since returned to Manchester and completed an MA in Creative Writing. His first novel, A Kill in the Morning, won the YouWriteOn book of the year award, was shortlisted for the Terry Pratchett Prize and subsequently was published by Transworld.Nikesh Shukla is the author of Meatspace, the Costa First Novel Award-shortlisted Coconut Unlimited and the Sabotage Reviews Best Novella winner The Time Machine. He is the host of The Subaltern Podcast and Dumsnet. He wrote Kabadasses, a comedy lab pilot for Channel 4 in 2011 and the award-winning short film, Two Dosas, based on his short story of the same name. His short stories have appeared in the Sunday Times, Best British Short Stories 2013, Too Much Too Young, Teller Magazine, Litro and Five Dials, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He lives in Bristol.Joe Stretch studied politics at Manchester University, where he was subsequently a Writing Fellow. He is the author of three novels – Friction (2007), Widlife (2009) and The Adult (2010). He was lead singer and lyricist of Manchester band Performance and is co-writer of Wizard’s Way, which won the LOCO 2013 Discovery Award and Best Comedy Feature at the 2012 London Independent Film Festival. He taught creative writing and lyric writing at Keele University, until recently moving to Manchester Metropolitan University.Alice Thompson was born in Edinburgh. She is the former keyboard player of post-punk eighties band, The Woodentops. She won The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Justine. Her second novel, Pandora’s Box, was shortlisted for The Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. Her other novels are Pharos, The Falconer, The Existential Detective, Burnt Island, The Book Collector and, most recently, Chimera. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University.Will Wiles was born in India in 1978. He is the author of three literary novels, Care of Wooden Floors (Fourth Estate, 2012), The Way Inn (Fourth Estate, 2014), and Plume (Fourth Estate, 2019). Care of Wooden Floors was a Waterstones 11 pick and won a Betty Trask award. He is also the author of fantasy novel The Last Blade Priest, under the name WP Wiles, which was published by Angry Robot in July 2022.
