Our Writers

Tim King is a poet based in Exeter. Since he began performing his work in 2010 Tim has won slams in Plymouth, Totnes and Exeter and has appeared at the 2011 Cheltenham Literature Festival and across the South West. He co-hosts Taking the Mic, a monthly spoken word open mic event at the Exeter Phoenix, with Exeter Express and Echo Poetry Correspondent Morwenna Griffiths. Tim's début collection Multiple Thin Coats is available to read and buy online. To find out more about Tim's activities visit www.speakinsong.co.uk

Sue Asby is a writer who works in Dorset using creative writing for health and wellbeing.

Born in Cardiff, Robert’s first collection, ‘Workings’, won the Welsh Arts Council’s 1978 New Poet Award and was published by Gomer Press. Strangely – and he still doesn’t understand why – he immediately stopped writing until the late 90s. Since then he has written numerous poems for performance in collaboration with musicians, artists, dancers, film-makers and storytellers. In 2008 he wrote the poetry-text for a tv drama-documentary, ‘Fighting to the End’ (dir. Colin Thomas, BBC2 Wales) and he has had six dramatic monologues produced by Bristol’s Show of Strength Theatre Company. After retiring from a lifetime’s career as an English teacher, he gained an MA with distinction in Creative Writing at Cardiff University in 2010 -11 and is currently working towards a PhD in Creative Writing at Cardiff. He lives in Bristol and his poetry pamphlet, ‘Waiting for the Wave’, has just been published by Pighog Press of Brighton.

Mama Tokus writes and performs poetry on the subjects of: Womanhood, Technology and futurism, Afro-ness, Age and wisdom, Fashion and music, Word-trickery and language. She is MC of Forked! – a super-successful performance poetry night in Plymouth, Devon, UK, that showcases the best of UK stand-up poets in front of capacity crowds. (Forked! is supported by England's leading organisation for performance poetry Apples and Snakes). As a musician, Mama Tokus has released an album On The Ragtime – a collection of blues, soul and gospel originals and covers.

Victoria Cole is a Psychological Therapist and Counsellor, working within the N.H.S.. She is usually studying and writing essays but also fits in writing poetry and stories on her days off. Her poem 'The First Shift' was commended and published in The Hippocrates Prize Anthology 2011.

Clare Reddaway writes short stories and plays for adults and children. Her work has been has been broadcast on local radio stations and published in anthologies, on the web and in magazines. Her plays have been performed on stage and recorded as audio dramas. She runs a regular short story performance event in Bath. Read more about it here - www.awordinyourear.org.uk. Once she's cracked the technology, there will be recordings of short stories to enjoy on the website. Before turning to writing Clare was a script editor for the BBC and Granada Television. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.
Tom Vowler's debut short story collection, The Method, won the Scott Prize in 2010 and the Edge Hill Readers' Prize in 2011. His forthcoming novel (Headline, 2013) is a psychological thriller. Tom is an associate lecturer at the University of Plymouth and is represented by A.M. Heath. He is Fiction Editor at the literary journal Short FICTION and blogs here.

Neil Vogler lives in Plymouth and is a thirty-five year-old former freelance journalist and English Literature graduate. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his debut novel, The Miraculist, and is seeking representation for his work. Other projects in development include a sci-fi novella called Nuniverse, and a collection of short stories. Neil has a blog here, where you can also find a couple of his flash fiction stories.

Rin Simpson (@rinsimpson) is a freelance journalist and creative writer based in Bristol. She has had short stories published in anthologies including Honno's Cut on the Bias and the National Flash Fiction Day collection Jawbreakers, as well as online, and is the founder of The Steady Table writers' group (@TheSteadyTable).

Gail Aldwin enjoys writing short stories and flash fiction as relief from the slog of completing a novel. Her work appears on-line with Paragraph Planet, Five Stop Story, Ink Sweat and Tears and Ether Books. Four print anthologies coming to press in 2012, including Dorset Voices and Kissing Frankenstein and other stories, contain examples of her writing. Gail has a regular column in What the Dickens? Magazine that answers writers’ questions. She blogs about all things literary here.

Six years ago Simon McCormack entered rehab as a successful addict/alcoholic and not so successful shop-fitter. He decided to learn a trade that he might enjoy and has been working at his poetry ever since. Simon now runs a weekly writing workshop for people in recovery, through a charity called Vita Nova in Bournemouth, and edits a quarterly free-sheet of the work produced. He is very excited about taking a creative writing workshop into Bethlem Royal Hospital during the summer. He is currently working towards an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Brenda Hutchings has always loved and enjoyed writing. She is currently busy writing a novel, short stories and material for performance poetry gigs and stand up comedy routines which she performs locally. She's a published poet and actor with Toads amateur dramatic society. Brenda can be found on the Creative Torbay website as Bea's wax! Waxing lyrical. Follow me on Twitter @brendahutching1.

Ken Elkes lives and works in Bristol, UK. He is a prize-winning author of short fiction, a journalist and a travel writer. His work has appeared online (including East of the Web, Red Fez, Apocrypha & Abstractions, Orange Labyrinth) and in several anthologies (including Your Messages - Blue Chrome Press; Image Coal - Leaf Books). He recently finished his first novel.

Alastair Keen is a former soldier, ex-RSPCA Inspector and was for a while Director of Operations of the Irish SPCA; amongst other things. He is now a partner in Roberts, (Hardware Store, Ottery St Mary) Open University Student, chicken whisperer and writer. He is a featured writer on Flash Fiction World and National Flash Fiction Day. His fiction can be found on Pygmy Giant, The Rusty Nail Magazine, Ether Books, Urban Fantasist amongst others. He is presently pinging his novel Unnecessary Suffering to agents and publishers.