Writers Supporting the Big Blake Project’s Events

Ian Duhig

A former homelessness worker, Ian Duhig has written six books of poetry, most recently 'Pandorama' (Picador 2010). He has won the Forward Best Poem Prize, the National Poetry Competition twice and three times been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. A Cholmondeley Award recipient, Duhig is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His next book of poetry. 'The Blind Roadmaker', is forthcoming from Picador.

Daljit Nagra

Daljit Nagra was born and raised in West London, then Sheffield. He currently lives in Harrow with his wife and daughters and works in a secondary school. His first collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover!, won the 2007 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. In 2008 he won the South Bank Show/Arts Council Decibel Award. Tippoo Sultan's Incredible White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy-Machine!!! was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2011.

Richard Skinner

Richard Skinner is the author of three novels, all published by Faber & Faber. His work has been nominated for prizes and is published in seven languages. His poems have appeared in numerous publications including And Other Poems, HARK and The Interpreter's House and have been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition. His collection, 'the light user scheme', is published by Smokestack. His new pamphlet is 'Terrace', published in April 2015. Richard is Director of the Fiction Programme at the Faber Academy.

Rowan Coleman

Rowan Coleman is the author of twelve novels, including the Sunday Times top ten bestseller 'The Memory Book,' which was chosen as a Richard and Judy bookclub selection in 2014 and the double award winning 'Runaway Wife.' Rowan is an active supporter of domestic abuse charity Refuge, donating 100% of royalties from the ebook publication of her novella, Woman Walks Into a Bar, to the charity. Her latest novel, 'We Are All Made of Stars' is published May 21st 2015.Rowan does not have time for ironing.

Nuala Casey

Nuala Casey was born in Stockton on Tees in 1979, the youngest

of five children. After graduating from Durham University in 2001,

Nuala moved to London to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter.

However, her experiences living in Soho where she chronicled the

comings and goings of the people around her, took her life in a

different direction.

She went on to work as a copywriter and was awarded an MA in

Creative Writing. Her debut novel Soho, 4am was published by

Quercus in 2013 and was described by the Huffington Post as “the

London Novel revived.”  Nuala’s latest novel, Summer Lies

Bleeding, was published by Quercus in 2014 and has been

described by Virginia Woolf's great niece, the author Henrietta

Garnett, as “a remarkable translation of (Woolf’s) The Years.” and

by The Irish Examiner as depicting a London “that is by turns gritty

and glorious.”

Psychogeography, urban living and the voices of the city continue

to provide inspiration for her writing.

SJ Watson

S J Watson’s first novel, Before I Go To Sleep, is a phenomenal international success. A bestseller around the world, it won The Crime Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel and The Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year. The film of the book, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, and directed by Rowan Joffe, was released in September 2014. His second novel Second Life was published in February 2015 to widespread acclaim. SJ Watson was born in the Midlands and now lives in London.

George Szirtes

George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956. He was brought up in London and studied Fine Art in London and Leeds. His poems began appearing in national magazines in 1973 and his first book, The Slant Door, was published in 1979. It won the Faber Memorial prize the following year.By this time he was married with two children. After the publication of his second book, November and May, 1982, he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Since then he has published several books and won various other prizes including the T S Eliot Prize for Reel in 2005.Having returned to his birthplace, Budapest, for the first time in 1984, he has also worked extensively as a translator of poems, novels, plays and essays and has won various prizes and awards in this sphere. His own work has been translated into numerous languages.

Tobias Churton

Tobias Churton is Britain’s leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a tradition that encompasses Blake’s deepest influences. Honorary Fellow and Faculty Lecturer in Western Esotericism at Exeter University, Tobias holds a Master’s degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford. His many books include: a biography of Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), the standard work on the great man who gave us the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and Aleister Crowley: The Biography (Watkins, 2nd edition September 2012), the definitive work on this controversial figure.

Martin Malone

Martin Malone is a UK based poet whose recent prizes include the 2011 Straid Poetry Award for new collections, the 2012 Mirehouse and the 2011 Wivenhoe Poetry Prizes. Runner-up in the 2013 Poetry School Pamphlet Competition, he was also short-listed in the 2012 Bridport Prize, 2011 Mirehouse Poetry Competition and the 2011 Torbay Poetry and 2010 Yorkshire Open Poetry competitions. He regularly publishes in magazines such as Smiths Knoll, Magma, Iota, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Acumen, The Reader, Orbis, PORT and Stand. Currently working on his second collection, Martin is undertaking practice-led research for a Ph.D in Poetry at Sheffield University.

He is editor of The Interpreter's House poetry journal.

Alex Marwood

Alex Marwood spent a decade as a features writer and columnist

for the UK press before jumping over the wall to write novels. She

had four published, including the bestselling The Temp, under her

real name, Serena Mackesy, before changing her name and

embracing the dark side. Alex's first

novel, The Wicked Girls, became a word-of-

mouth international bestseller, was on

Stephen King's list of the best novels of

2013 and won an Edgar Allen Poe award,

as well as being shortlisted for the ITW, Anthony and MaCavity

awards. The Killer Next Door is shortlisted for the Anthonys again,

and for a Silver Falchion. King described it as "scary as hell". Her

latest, The Darkest Secret, in which a small child disappears and

leaves a trail of lies and devastation in her wake, comes out at the

end of the year. She grew up in the Cotswolds, lives in south

London and generally works in bed. She recently threw away her

desk and replaced it with a second bed, to “ give herself

somewhere to go for a change of scene"