Debbie Cannon has been writing seriously for three years, and has had poetry and short prose published.  She won the 2007 Scottish Association of Writers Poetry Trophy.  She also writes comedy sketches and screenplays, and has co-produced two short films, with more in the pipeline.  She also acts, and does a variety of other sometimes bizarre jobs to make ends meet.  She lives in Edinburgh and has a son. Anna Dickie discovered writing six years ago, while in treatment for breast cancer. Encouraged by Colin Will and Judi Benson she’s produced a series poem, called Peeling Onions, based on her treatment journal, which Valeri Gillies bought for the Maggie's Centre, and a first chapbook, Heart Notes, was published in 2008 by Calder Wood Press. A former policy officer with The Scottish Government, she is now a trustee of two small Scottish charities and a member of the Scottish Poetry Library's School of Poets. She is also a gardener and prize winning photographer Sarah Hesketh holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Her poems have appeared in a number of magazines in both the UK and the US and her first full-length collection, Napoleon's Travelling Bookshelf, will be published in June 2009 by Penned in the Margins. She currently works as assistant director at the writer's charity English PEN. Sarah Jackson lives in Brighton, where she is completing doctoral research in Creative and Critical writing at Sussex University and working towards her first full collection of poetry. Her poems have been published in a range of journals including The Rialto, Magma and Envoi. Her pamphlet, Milk, was published by Pighog Press in 2008 and her work will feature in the forthcoming anthology, Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (Bloodaxe, 2009). Katie McCullough trained at Bournemouth Media School and is involved with the Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme. She has had readings at the ICA and Theatre Royal Stratford East.  Her work reached the semi-finals for the British Short Screenplay Competiton, the Bruntswood Playwriting Competition and was selected to be one of the 200 creatives for the first Tony Wilson Experience in Manchester.  The Arvon Foundation is helping fund Katie to attend one of their intensive courses being tutored by Simon Stephens. Katy Massey is working on a memoir about growing up in 1980s Leeds called Are we home yet? and has previously published memoir, short fiction and poetry. Currently, she divides her time between Leeds and Newcastle, where she is in her final year of study for a phd in Creative Writing. Before returning to study, she spent 12 years working as a freelance journalist for various publications. Stevie Ronnie was born in Newcastle and spent much of his childhood in a field in rural Northumberland.  His poetry has appeared in Other Poetry, iota and Orbis and a pamphlet, The Thing To Do When You Are Not In Love (Sand/Red Squirrel), appeared in 2008. He’s been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Works and the Poetry Can First Collection competitions.  Current projects include a digital archive of North-East literary history and a PhD in creative writing at Newcastle University where he also teaches. Anne Ryland lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed, where she teaches adults and leads writing workshops with community groups. Her first collection of poetry, Autumnologist, (Arrowhead Press) was shortlisted for The Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2006, and she is now working towards her second collection. She has just won first prize in the Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition. Jacqueline Saphra is a poet, playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been performed in repertory theatres and on national tours and her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies. She is one half of the poetry duo The Disparate Housewives, was Poet in Residence at Good Housekeeping Online and her pamphlet, ‘Rock’n’Roll Mamma’ was published by Flarestack last year. She won first prize in the Ledbury Poetry Competition 2007. Bethan Stevens is a DPhil student in Creative and Critical Writing at Sussex University, funded by the AHRC. She is writing her second novel, which is about the curator of an illicit museum of lost art. She is the author of two short books of non-fiction: William Blake and Pre-Raphaelites (British Museum Press, 2005 & 2008). Her published essays include the forthcoming ‘Woes & sighs: fantasies of slavery in Visions of the Daughters of Albion’ in Queer Blake, edited by Bruder and Connolly (Palgrave, 2009). Joanne Toner finished an MSC in Creative Writing last September and is now in the second and final year of the Traverse Theatre Young Writers Group. Joanne’s first full play was performed by SwishTheatre at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.  In the previous year, she co-wrote a piece of drama for the company and is now completing a script for First Bite. Joanne is also working on a new commission that she has just started for the theatre company, Electric Youth. Michelle Wards was brought up in Laurencekirk in the North-East of Scotland. She successfully plotted her escape and gained an English & Politics degree from Glasgow University. Completing her MSc in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University she discovered that she knew very little about life and even less about writing and has spent the last few years trying to rectify this problem. Michelle is currently working on her first novel. Also joining us in April are SALLY BAKER and SUSAN ROSSER.