Mel Owen is an award-winning comedian, writer and presenter. In 2024, Mel published her first novel, Oedolyn(ish!), which was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2025 and selected for the 2026 Quick Reads scheme. Script writing credits include Netflix, Channel 4, BBC One and BBC Radio 4.
I have been a member of the Monmouth Group of SoA Cymru since the group was formed and have been joint coordinator of the group for the last couple of years. I am 73 years old and retired as a science teacher some sixteen years ago. I was also an author of educational materials for…
Sophie Calon is a Welsh author and journalist, born and raised in Cardiff. Her first book, Long Going (Honno Press, 2025), is a memoir of her dad who drank. It sold out within a fortnight, and Honno had to order three print runs within the first fifteen weeks. Long Going was endorsed by Jacqueline Wilson,…
Mohamed Tonsy is an Edinburgh-based Egyptian writer and ceramicist. Their writing has appeared in Mizna, Epoch Press and won a Quarterly John Byrne Award. In 2023, Tonsy was the Jameel Ceramics Fellow at the V&A in London. Their debut novel, You Must Believe in Spring was published in 2022 by Hajar Press.
Dr Christina Neuwirth is a researcher, author and bookseller based in Edinburgh. They are the author of The Quine Report (2025) which examined gender equality in the contemporary Scottish literary sector, and the prize-nominated novella Amphibian (2018). Christina is the director of First Date Romance Fiction Festival, and serves on the board of StAnza, Scotland’s…
Tom Bailey is a writer and editor based in Edinburgh. His debut pamphlet, Please Do Not Touch or Feed the Horses, was published by Poetry London Editions and won an Eric Gregory Award in 2025. He edits the online poetry magazine And Other Poems and works in social care.
Cecilia Rossi is Professor of Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia and the Executive Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. She is also the director if the MA in Literary Translation at UEA. Her latest translation, The Last Innocence and The Lost Adventures (Alejandra Pizarnik) published by Ugly Duckling Presse was shortlisted for…
Josephine Murray is a graduate of the UEA MA in Literary Translation and a French to English literary translator specialising in children’s literature and culinary texts. Alongside this she is an award-nominated freelance journalist and Secretary to the PETRA-E Network, a pan-European organisation promoting the training of literary translators. She has taught French, German and Spanish in secondary schools, and previously worked as a cook. Her translation work includes…
I write trade non-fiction for children, focusing on science and technology — lots of dinosaurs and other dead things, space, computers and other cool things. Sometimes I write children’s fiction, often for emerging readers. For adults I write popular science and history of science. I’ve been writing for children since the late 1990s and wrote…
Chip began storytelling professionally in 2007. He’s since performed in 11 countries across four continents, presented Traditional Tales for Oxford Reading Tree online, performed regularly at Glastonbury Festival, and represented Roald Dahl on ITV. He has also written five theatre shows supported by Arts Council England and 22 children’s books (and counting!), as well as…
Anna Wilson started her career as a picture book editor at Macmillan Children’s Books. She went on to be a Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books; the role included looking after the Paddington list for which she has since written two novels as a freelancer: Paddington 2 and Paddington in Peru, the books of the…
Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers.
