Author profile: New Contexts 5

      Edward Alport – a retired teacher and proud Essex Boy – occupies his time as a poet, gardener and writer. He has had poetry published in a variety of webzines and magazines and BBC Radio.
      Phil Askham was an academic writer of text books, research papers and professional magazine articles. Upon retirement in 2012, Phil took up writing poetry as therapy.
      John Atkinson’s writing tries to capture the sound and images of people as they live their lives. Previously published in international magazines and a playwright; he hails from Wexford, Ireland.
      Alex M Barry is a Bristol-based architect with a love of poetry. First prize Coverstory books 2022 poetry competition. Numerous poems played on BBC Radio Bristol’s “Upload” with Adam Crowther.
      Actively writing and publishing poetry since 2011, Clare M Bercot Zwerling lives in Northern California and is a member of the Writers of the Mendocino Coast.
      Margaret Beston is the author of two collections: Long Reach River; Timepiece, a pamphlet, When the Ground Crashed Upwards and founder of Roundel in Tonbridge.
      Ama Bolton lives in Somerset with a sculptor and a hen. An e-chapbook Ninesis forthcoming from Snapshot Press.
      James Callan lives on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand. His writing has appeared in Carte Blanche, Bridge Eight, White Wall Review, Mystery Tribune, and elsewhere.
      Joseph Chaplain is a writer who lives in the Peak District. So far, his work has appeared in New Contexts (1 & 2), The Rebis, and Crystal Peak’s Dark Folklore anthology.
      Landscape, nature, weather, man’s destruction, local history & his farm all inspire Andrew Collinson. Northern Counties Collection, Pendle War Poetry, Networds & Plumb Tree Tavern all exhibit his work.
      Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer. She has twelve published chapbooks, and her debut photography collection was published April 2023.
      Kerry Derbishire has always lived in Cumbria, a landscape that inspires her writing. She’s published widely and has three collections, two pamphlets, and a third due in 2024.
      Brian Docherty is a Glasgow-Irish post-Beat poet, 8 books, most recently Only in St. Leonards – A Year on the Marina (2017), Blue to the Edge (2020), The View From the Villa Delirium (2021).
      Philip Dunkerley is active in poetic circles in South Lincolnshire, where he lives. His poems quite often sneak past editors, and he loves inflicting them on all-comers at open mic events.
      A Londoner, Polly East taught in secondary schools while raising her children. Now living in Brighton, she has more time to fine tune her writing. She has been long listed for the National Poetry Competition.
      John Edwards lives and writes in Spain. Passionate on wildlife issues and believes in poetic protest. Politics and injustice he will comment on.
      Poetry hijacked Angela Ellis in Lockdown. She explores the elasticity of form, imagery and time. Art and nature often feature in her work. She lives in Devon.
      Adele Evershed has been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize. Her two poetry chapbooks were published by Finishing line Press and Bottlecap Press. Find her at https://www.thelithag.com.
      Lara Frankena’s poems have appeared in publications such as Poetry News, Oxford Poetry and Magma and were longlisted for the Erbacce Prize in 2021, 2022 and 2023. She lives in London.
      Jim Friedman is a member of the Derby Poetry Stanza. He had his first collection of poems published in 2022. He is working on a second collection.
      Lindsay Fursland is a former teacher, living in Cambridge. He is the Poetry Society’s Stanza rep in the city, leading monthly workshops, where he also helps to host regular open mic poetry events.
      Siobhan Gifford lives in the shade of the North York Moors which, along with her family, often haunt the ley lines of her poems. Recent work has appeared in two anthologies from White Rose Bards.
      Ian Gouge is a writer of both fiction and poetry. In 2023 he performed his long poem Crash at the Ripon Theatre Festival. His latest fiction is Tilt, Once Significant Others, and the short story collection An Irregular Piece of Sky.
      Diana Hills is retired and started to write poetry recently following a life changing event. She performs poems at various East Sussex pubs, as short and funny as possible.
      Ben Hramiak is an author with a Bachelor’s Honours in English Literature and Creative Writing. He is currently writing a historical fiction novel set in feudal Japan.
      Tom Larner is an archivist based in Bedfordshire. He has been published in New Contexts 4, and magazines such as Crank, Canon, Poetry Cove and The Littoral.
      S.J. Litherland lives in Durham. Her eighth collection Marginal Future is due from Smokestack in 2024. She has two Northern Writers’ Awards, and two National Poetry Comp Commendations.
      Ann Logan’s retirement rekindled her love of reading and writing poetry. A Devon-dwelling Canadian/British science and politics nerd with so much to write about.
      Carmina Masoliver has shared her poetry on page and stage for over a decade; her book Circles is published by Burning Eye Books, taking place on the tube.
      Caroline Matusiak as published in early years education.  A contributor to the Rumbold Report.  She enjoys wild swimming, hiking and open mic nights.
      Mark Mayes enjoys writing poems, stories, and songs, as well as some non-fiction.
      Penny McCarthy has published poems in various journals; a pamphlet of poems set in France, The Stealing Shadow; and books and articles on Shakespeare and the Sidney circle.
      Emmaline O’Dowd lives in Derby, and has had work in a range of magazines, including Orbis, Acumen, Popshot and Pennine Platform.
      Alfie Ormsbee is an English teacher from Royal Oak, MI. He has been published by Coverstory Books, Allegory Ridge, Quillkeeper’s Press, and High Shelf Press.
      Carol Park Carol Park teaches ESL. For joy she writes, hikes, reads, and volunteers in a jail. She studied writing with Seattle Pacific University. Find links to her fiction and poetry at http://www.CarolPark.us.
      Jonty Pennington-Twist’s work has been published in several anthologies. He has recently written a commissioned piece to mark the RNLI’s 200th anniversary.
      Susan Perkins writes stories and poems for her family, friends and writing group, after learning the basics when she worked in publishing and then in teaching.
      Based in Ashbourne, Janet Philo has two solo pamphlets, and work in anthologies and online. She enjoys mixing spoken poetry with her husband’s guitar music. 
      Jenna Plewes loves collies, and wild places. She’s selling her latest collection A Lick of Loose Threads, published 2023, in aid of MSF. Find her on FaceBook and Poetry PF
      Stephen Poole is a retired policeman. His poems have appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Poetry on the Lake, and LPP Magazine. New Contexts: 5 is the eighth anthology to publish his work.
      David Punter is a poet and academic. He has published nine collections, the most recent of which are Those Other Fields (Palewell, 2020), Stranger (Cinnamon, 2021) and Ship’s Log (2022).
      Bill Richardson had poems published in, inter alia, The Stony Thursday Book, Orbis, The Orchards, Skylight 47, 14, The High Window, and the Fish Anthology.
      Julia Rizzi has published short stories, features, poetry, simple recipes and is a member of Hertford Writers’ Circle. Find her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-rizzi/
      Jenny Robb, from Liverpool, is widely published in magazines and anthologies. Her debut collection, The Doll’s Hospital (Yaffle Press) was published in 2022.
      Gillie Robic was born in India. Pamphlet: Open Skies in aid of Ukraine; books: Swimming Through Marble and Lightfalls (all Live Canon). A third due in November.
      Graeme Ryan, Poet, playwright, naturalist, lives between Exmoor and the Quantocks, member of Somerset’s Fire River Poets. His Valley of the Kings was published in 2022.
      Barbara Sapienza – inspired by granddaughters – writes Anchor Out (2017), The Laundress (2020), The Girl in the White Cape (2023). She dances, paints and does tai chi.
      Dave Smith’s debut collection, Standing Alone, Leaning Against, was published in 2022 by Coverstory books.
      Kate Swann’s first poetry collection, Ripples Beyond the Pool, was published in 2019 by Coverstory Books. She has subsequently published a gritty, family biography, Phyll to her Friends.
      Eleanor Jane Turner is happiest when swimming. She enjoys the outdoors, especially remote Scotland. She presents her creative writing at the Forest Hill Stanza.
      Julia Usman published her first prose work A Little Country with Coverstory books in the autumn of 2022, following a poetry collection She who sings is not always happy in 2021.
      Christiaan Van Bussel is retired and live in East London. He has always written poetry and was a prize winner in the 1983 National Poetry Competition.
      Christian Ward is a UK-based writer who has recently appeared in the Rappahannock Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Full House Literary, and Double Speak.
      Patrick Williamson is a poet and translator. His latest collection is Here and Now (Cyberwit.net). He is a member of editorial board of The Antonym.
      Keith Wilson lives in East Sussex where he performs his songs and poems. He is currently completing an OU MA in Creative Writing.
      Charlotte Wilson writes in Ripon, North Yorkshire, about nature, spirituality and how we find meaning and connection in our ordinary – or extraordinary – lives.