December 2006
We were proud to present a brilliant line up of writers: David Almond, Marlynn Rosario, Paul Bodie and Elizabeth Tate with music by popular singer/songwriter Lesley Roley.
DAVID ALMOND grew up in a large catholic family on Tyneside. His first novel for children, Skellig, won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award, and became a bestseller around the world. The novels, plays and stories that followed have brought popular success, widespread critical acclaim, and ha string of major prizes. His work is translated into over twenty languages, and has been adapted for film, radio and stage. His most recent novel is Clay. Forthcoming: two short novels My Dad's a Birdman and The Savage; a stage version of The Fire-Eaters; and an opera of Skellig. He lives with his family in Northumberland.
‘David Almond's novels are strange, unsettling wild things – unfettered by the normal constraints of children's literature. They are, like all great literature, unclassifiable.' The Guardian.
PAUL BODIE Paul is a promising young writer from Coatbridge, near Glasgow. He has lived in Newcastle for the last nine years and has just completed his first novel ‘Mugs.' Two publishers are showing interest at the moment so he's keeping his fingers crossed.
MARLYNN ROSARIO 'the forensic precision of her imagery, it's goosepimpling delicacy, belie the sheer ferocity with which she scalpels through all that is sacred.
ELIZABETH TATE is a Fine Artist living and working in the North East, teaching sculpture at The University of Sunderland. She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, as a sculptor and garden designer. She is primarily and image-maker and is currently in her 2nd year of the MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. She has had work published in various anthologies and poetry reviews and is currently working on a new collection entitled “Alchemy in the Kitchen.”
LESLEY ROLEY ‘I'm the Saugal Massie front woman (local band in which I sing lead and play guitar) I write my own material. My music is a mismatch of lots of different genre, quite 60's – folk. I've been told I have a sweet voice!'