Jean Atkin lives with her family on a smallholding in Dumfriesshire, and works for Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association. She has been writing seriously for the last three years. Her poetry has appeared in New Writing Scotland 2009, Poetry Scotland, Northwords Now, The Eildon Tree, Southlight and various regional anthologies. She has been a winner in several poetry competitions, most recently the Torbay Prize(2009), the Mirehouse Poetry Competition (2010) and the Ravenglass Poetry Press Competition(2010), which will see her pamphlet, ‘The Treeless Region’, published in spring 2011.
Katy Ewing
I'm a fairly new writer, as yet unpublished apart from in anthologies by the two writers' groups of which I'm a member. I live in rural South-West Scotland, with my husband and two daughters, where we enjoy a relatively quiet life, as self-sufficiently as we can.
I'm currently a mature student, just finishing second year of an amazing Liberal Arts: Humanities degree (at Glasgow University Dumfries Campus), so don't have as much time for creative writing as I'd like. When I do write non-academically, it's so far been mainly poetry and short stories, plus a little memoir now and again
Sally Jordan
Sally Jordan escaped to Scotland in 1981, on the run from the snobbery and vindictiveness of Thatcher’s Home Counties. She settled, worked and brought up children. Now retired she writes. She has had some poetry, flash fiction and a short story published in Southlight. She was one of the winners of the ‘Poetry on the Bus’ project and won an online Flash Fiction competition a few years back. She has a sad and desperate novel trapped in a bottom drawer, The novel may be sad but she is not.
JoAnne McKay was born in Romford, Essex and had a career as a police officer in Bristol, until love and marriage led her to Dumfriesshire twelve years ago. She now combines motherhood and work with mixed success. Her first pamphlet, The Fat Plant, was published in 2009. She has read at The London Poetry and Wigtown Book Festivals, and appeared in Gutter: the magazine of new Scottish writing.
Linda Powell
(Brindley Hallam Dennis) has won prizes and awards for his poetry and fiction on both sides of the border. His work has been published, broadcast and performed. His collection of Kowalski's assertions, That's What Ya Get! is due out from Unbound Press, and he has a novel accepted by Pewter Rose Press. He recently took the M Litt through Glasgow University, and currently teaches Creative Writing at Cumbria University. His blogspot/website is at: http://bhdandme.wordpress.com/ He lives in Cumbria within sight of three mountain tops, and a sliver of sea.
Anne Richardson
My name is Anne Richardson. I have always liked writing from an early age. I have not tried for publication except for a factual article in the Cumbria magazine which was accepted, and was re-printed in a 40 years anniversary book (without my consent!) Otherwise I have had a couple of poems published. I enjoy best writing character studies and I am at present working on my memoirs. I am finding Crichton Writers helpful and stimulating. Having other people with with different ideas has helped me to get started writing again after several years of 'writer's block'.
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Some members have links to their own websites or blogs just click on their name where it's underlined
Christine Cameron
Originally a Londoner, Christine Cameron was educated in the Home Counties. She has a degree in art and design and her employment background is in design and publishing. As a mature student, she gained an MA Hons. in Liberal Arts with Environmental Studies and an MSc. in Carbon Management at the Crichton Campus of Glasgow University. Christine’s interest is in environmental issues and she is Secretary of South West Environmental Action Trust. Christine lives in Nithsdale and finds the area is an inspirational location for all environmental and creative diversions. Recently she has found expression in creative writing.
Mike Gill
He is married with three children and five grandchildren. He was born in Yorkshire in 1929 and moved to the Isle of Arran after National Service in 1949.
He joined the Crichton Writers shortly before his 80th birthday. By then he had retired from his silversmithing business and Digby was just finishing his booklet about the Zodiac hieroglyphs. Mike wanted to write the story of how he reached his conclusions, and determined to learn how to set about it. Two years later, and the booklet is now finished, (Google ‘Digby’s Glyphs’ or click the link below), and Mike is busy cajoling as many Crichton Writers as he can into criticising his work so far.
2010/11 Vice Chair
I’m the Editor of A Rocha International, a Christian conservation organization, so enjoy writing about the forests, wetlands and grasslands which we protect in twenty countries and the wonderfully diverse groups of people who run our projects. My writing career began with a series of books on the great pioneering naturalists: Biographies for Birdwatchers, Audubon to Xantus, The Bird Collectors and more recently, John Kirk Townsend, who crossed North America in 1834, discovering birds and mammals new to science. I started to write poetry after joining the Crichton Writers in 2009 and am relishing the stimulation of a local group.
In my dreams I live by the sea on the edge of a sprawling city where the temperature never drops below 30ºc. My mornings are spent sitting at a table on the pavement of my favourite cafe, eating Amalfi-lemon scented polenta cake, and drinking cappuccino. In the afternoon I run along the beach wearing red shorts, and after a light supper of poached fish I smear my eyes with kohl and go out dancing. In reality I spend my days here, in south west Scotland, embroiled in the trials and tribulations of housewifery – ‘take those boots off, I’ve just washed the floors!’ – and my nights writing, trying not to turn up the heating. In July I will graduate from the University of Glasgow’s Crichton campus with an M.Litt in Creative Writing. My final portfolio was an exploration of post-modern values, writing it was almost as much fun as eating cake and sipping Italian coffee in the sun, and considerably less fattening. I am currently writing a book about the 19th century German philosopher Nietzsche.
Chair of Crichton Writers until....
Carolyn Yates took up the post of Literature Development Officer for Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association on 1st February 2010. She has been a science teacher, researcher, teacher trainer and school inspector. She set up two training and development companies and ahs worked in Palestine, Jordan and Pakistan on behalf of the Department for International Development and Non-Government organizations. She writes drama, short stories, poetry, school textbooks and education materials. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Writing for Performance from the Arden School of Theatre, Manchester.She lives in Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway.
Her priorities are to activate and support grass roots networks of writers; produce more professional development opportunities and get involved in injecting more literary activities into other arts projects in the region.She is at the moment seeking to recruit volunteer readers for a community health and well-being project linked to the new build of the Crichton hospital.
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Leonie S. Ewing
2010-11 Chair
A retired biologist and farmer with a lifelong interest in science and natural history, now enjoying writing both poetry and prose in Wigtownshire. She enjoys the challenge of introducing scientific ideas into her work and showing that arts and science share the creative process.
Pam Gulland
My interest in writing stemmed from studying for an MA in Liberal Arts at Glasgow University Crichton Campus, which followed a career in Community Nursing. I am a founder member of Crichton Writers from whom I have gained confidence and support. I’ve contributed to most of their publications and particularly enjoy writing for children. My work is included in Dumfries Museum’s Windmill Stories. I have eight grandchildren who continue to energise and inspire me.
John Horn
2010/11 Secretary
lives on the north Solway shore. She is a professional early musician along with her husband, Richard. Her short stories and poetry have been widely published and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland – her first themed collection of short stories, Perfect 10, was published in September 2009 by Pewter Rose Press.
Autumn-Winter 2009/2010 has seen short stories published in The Yellow Room, Horizon (Salt Publishing) and Iota Fiction anthology. She has just compiled a first poetry collection - About Time,Too - which was published in Autumn 2010 by Indigo Dreams Press. She won the 2010 Poetry London Prize, which involved publication, a reading at Foyles Bookshop in London and a cheque for £1000, presented by the judge, Michael Longley. The winning poem was called 'My Mother's Literature'. As of October 2010 she is working on a fiction project - women amongst warriors - with the support of a Creative Scotland Writer's Bursary, which will focus on the changing attitudes of women towards war and peace issues in the 20th century.
Fiona Russell
Fiona Russell is a first year PhD student having graduated in 2009 from the University of Glasgow, Dumfries with an MLitt in Writing, passing with distinction. Being a hill farmer’s daughter she is closely linked to the land. Her main influences are from her work in agriculture and scientific illustration, her love of natural history and from her mother - a sculptor. Fiona is currently looking at the relationships between landscape, place and people; the subsequent effects on natural history and on social and cultural practices in the Meggat Valley, Westerkirk. In March 2010 Fiona won a Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust Award for ‘the most outstanding piece of coursework from a student studying at a Scottish University’ for her folio ‘Where Clouds Come To Die.’ She has twice appeared in DGAA’s Poetry Doubles and her work has appeared in publications both locally and nationally. Fiona is a founder member of Crichton Writers.
Anni Telford
Since retiring to Galloway after a career as a psychotherapist and academic in various parts of England I have had the opportunity to devote more time to my writing which has in the past included a series of satirical commentaries in a monthly magazine, various academic papers and chapters, poetry and more recently short stories. Whilst my writing output has increased it seems the attractions of walking the dogs on the beach, tending the garden, running the Booktown Writers' Group, learning Gaelic and of course copious amounts of reading in front of the wood burner has not allowed full productivity. This is to be addressed in my 2012 resolutions. My website is
Sarah Zillwood
originally from the south of England, I trained and worked as a doctor in the Midlands, then moved to Glasgow, where my three children were born. I have written, quietly in my attic, for many years, but this is the first poem that I have submitted for publication. I am a full-time mother, living in Dumfries
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