Steve Bell
Steve Bell was born in 1951 in Walthamstow in East London. Since 1981 he has written and drawn the daily If… strip in the Guardian. In addition, since 1990 he has produced four large free-standing cartoons a week on the leader pages, which now appear in full colour. His work has been published all over the world and he has won numerous awards, including the What the Papers Say Cartoonist of the Year in 1993, Cartoonist of the Year in 2005 and 2007, the British Press Awards Cartoonist of the Year in 2002, and the Channel 4 Political Humour Award in 2005.
Hannah Berry
Hannah Berry did an illustration degree at the University of Brighton and still lives there. Her graphic novel Britten & Brulightly has been published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Metropolitan Books in the US, with French, Dutch and Italian editions. It was part of the Official Selection at Angouleme in 2010. Her next graphic novel is a ghost story called Adamtine, to be published 2011/12.
Elleke Boehmer
Born in South Africa, Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English, and a Professorial Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College. She is known for her edition of Robert Baden-Powell's book Scouting for Boys. Among her other academic works are Empire, the National and the Postcolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors and Nelson Mandela. Her first novel Screens Against the Sky was shortlisted for the David Higham Prize in 1991. Her third novel, Bloodlines, was shortlisted for the Sanlam Literary Award in 2001. Her latest novel, Nile Baby, was published in 2008, followed by a 2010 collection of short stories Sharmilla, and Other Portraits.
Selma Dabbagh
Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian writer of fiction based in London. Her writing is mainly set in the contemporary Middle East. Recurring themes in her work are idealism (however futile), placelessness, political engagement (or lack thereof) and the impact of social conformity on individuals. Selma’s first novel, Out of It, is due to be published by Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation in December 2011.
Sue Eckstein
Sue Eckstein is a lecturer, novelist and playwright. Since July 2007, she has been Lecturer in Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Her first radio play, Kaffir Lilies, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006. Laura, another play for BBC Radio 4, was broadcast in 2008 and Old School Ties in 2009. Her dramatisation of The Cloths of Heaven was the Woman’s Hour Drama in March 2010. She has a DPhil in creative writing from the University of Sussex. Her second novel Interpreters was published by Myriad in 2011.
Lizzie Enfield
Lizzie Enfield worked as a journalist and producer for BBC radio, before going freelance and now contributes to various national newspapers and magazines. Her short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and published in Woman’s Own and the Sunday Express magazine. She lives in Brighton with her husband and three children. Her first novel What You Don't Know was published in 2011 and her second, Uncoupled, is forthcoming in Spring 2012.
Suzi Feay
Originally from Bolton, Lancashire, Suzi Feay now lives in London and reports on a wide range of literary and cultural topics in her blog. She was literary editor of the Independent on Sunday for 11 years, and has judged many literary prizes, including the Impac, the Whitbread Novel Award, The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the National Poetry Competition. She is on the advisory committee for the new Literary Prize in the UK. A member of the Authors Club, she is the chair of its annual Best First Novel Award. Suzi has also interviewed many authors on stage: Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Ali Smith, Hilary Mantel, Lady Antonia Fraser, Justin Cartwright, Bret Easton Ellis, Alan Hollinghurst and Sarah Waters among others.
Ed Hillyer
Ed Hillyer – also known as ILYA – is a British writer and artist. His books include the award-winning graphic novel series The End of the Century Club, an entry in noir anthology It’s Dark in London and, most recently, a daring adaptation of King Lear for Self Made Hero’s Manga Shakespeare series. Illustration clients include the BBC, Royal Academy of Arts, and the Times and Guardian newspapers. He also designs and tutors workshops and courses on the art of comics and manga for colleges, galleries, libraries, schools and prisons, across the UK as well as abroad. The Clay Dreaming, his debut prose novel, was selected as one of Waterstone's New Voices for 2010.
Jonathan Kemp
Jonathan Kemp was born in Manchester, grew up in Cheshire and moved to London in 1989. He currently teaches creative writing and comparative literature at Birkbeck, where he was awarded Distinguished Sessional Lecturer in 2010. His fiction has appeared in Chroma, the online queer literary journal Polari, Brand Magazine, Best Gay Erotica 2010, and Best Gay Short Stories 2010. His first novel, London Triptych, was shortlisted for the inagural Green Carnation Prize and won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. Myriad will publish his second book, Twentysix, in November and his forthcoming novel, Hannah Rose, in 2012.
Alexandra Pringle
Alexandra Pringle began her editorial career at Virago Publishing in the late 1970s. She was made Editorial Director and later Managing Director of Virago. She left publishing in 1994 to become a literary agent, before moving to Bloomsbury Publishing in 1999, where she is now Editor-in-Chief. Her list of authors includes Donna Tartt, Barbara Trapido, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, William Boyd, Ronan Bennett and Susanna Clarke.
Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin is the UK's number one best-selling crime writer. He lives in Edinburgh, and writes about the city in his award-winning Detective Inspector Rebus novels and in those featuring Inspector Malcolm Fox. The Rebus books have twice been dramatised for TV (starring John Hannah and Ken Stott respectively), and are translated into 36 languages. Ian Rankin also appears regularly on TV, notably as a reviewer on BBC2's 'Newsnight Review'. His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2002.
Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle lives in Seaford and is Professor of English at the University of Sussex. He teaches literature at undergraduate level and supervises PhD students, as well as directing the MA programme in Creative and Critical Writing. His academic writing is distinguished, in unusual ways, by playful language and linguistic invention. Royle’s commitment to clear and accessible prose appealing to a wide audience is also evident in such books as E. M. Forster, How to Read Shakespeare, and (with Andrew Bennett) the academic bestseller An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. Quilt, his first novel, was published in 2011 by Myriad Editions.
Nicola Streeten
Nicola Streeten studied at the University of Sussex and Middlesex Polytechnic. She is now studying for a Master of Research at the University of Lincoln. Nicola is the co-creator of ‘Laydeez do Comics’, a graphic novel forum with a focus on the new wave of comic work based on the drama of everyday life. She has worked as a freelance illustrator since 1996, applying a humorous cartoon style to people, maps and buildings. Her illustrations have been commissioned by publishers, businesses, charities and private clients. Her first graphic book, Billy, Me & You, will be published by Myriad in October. It first appeared in serialised form in Liquorice Magazine.
Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot was born in 1952, in Wigan, Lancashire. In 2000, he received the annual San Diego Comicon Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts. In Adult Comics by Roger Sabin (Routledge 1993) he is cited as one of the creators of the graphic novel form. In July this year he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his 'outstanding contribution to the arts as writer and graphic artist' by Sunderland University. The UK edition of his latest graphic novel, Alice in Sunderland, is now in its third printing.
Lesley Thomson
Born in 1958 and brought up in Hammersmith, West London, Lesley graduated from Brighton University in 1981 and moved to Sydney, Australia. Her first novel, Seven Miles From Sydney, debuted in 1987 and became of the City Limits top ten best books for that year. While completing an MA in English Literature at Sussex University she wrote A Kind of Vanishing, published by Myriad Editions in 2007. A member of the Crime Writers Association, she is an Associate Tutor on Greg Mosse’s Creative Writing MA at West Dean College.
Aneurin Wright
Aneurin (Nye) Wright was born in rural Idaho, USA, the son of a West Texan architect and a London writer. He earned a BA in English Literature from Yale and a BFA in Illustration and Communication Design from the Pratt Institute. He was hailed as ‘an amazing talent’ for his first book Lex Talionis: A Jungle Tale (Image, 2004). He was the animation director for the Short History of the United States, a cartoon sequence in Michael Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine. He lives in Brighton with his wife, graphic designer Lyndsay Lucero. His new book, Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park, will be published by Myriad Editions on 19 January 2012.