Here's some of the stuff wot I do!

I've won loads of awards in poetry, short fiction and screenwriting, and in playwrighting for both radio and stage.  My poetry and short fiction have been published widely in anthologies (eg with Bloodaxe, Comma Press, Crocus, Grist and Route) and literary magazines such as Prospect, Mslexia and Chroma.  I have had five poetry collections published (check out my latest two here);  six of my plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4;  and I have had seven stage plays produced, with one touring nationally with Red Ladder.  I recently finished a two-year tour with the excellent Some Girls' Mothers anthology.  And for the last year, I've been Writer-in-Residence for the huge Watershed Landscape Project (see my Watershed blog), and also Writer-in-Residence for Hull University's Business School working with academic staff and students (BA to PhD) to find more creative ways for them to communicate, and to tackle business problems.

I love working with children and with adults - to get them inspired to write creatively.  And I've always got a stack of projects on the go at any one time, eg:
helping 4-year-olds to create and perform their own stories; creating poem-stories with people in Sheltered Housing;
taking deaf children out on the moors to fly kites and make sign-poems of their experiences;
running CPD courses for secondary English teachers;
getting Wensleydale children to write in their own made-up Stone Age language;
working with 80-year-old engineers to help them tell their tales of producing the first artificial hip joints! 
working with academic staff in Hull Univ's Faculty of Health and Social Care to bring in more creative thinking and working

I am also Lecturer in Creative Writing at Leeds Art and Design College, and I tutor for a wide range of writing groups, universities and the WEA.

I regularly work for museums, art galleries and out in the landscape using creative writing as a way of lighting up the experience for visitors - both adults and children.  Creative writing is a great way of finding out what makes you, the world, and other people tick - and I love getting the opportunity of helping people find their own unique writing 'voice'.

Have a surf around my website to see what I'm up to - and do contact me if you'd like further info.