Hyphen: An Anthology of Short Stories by Poets

Steven Blyth studied Philosophy and Literature at Bolton Institute and English as a post-graduate at Manchester University. He has published three collections of poetry: The Gox (Redbeck), Baddy and So (both Peterloo).

Helen Clare's poems have appeared in First Pressings (Faber), The Rialto, Ambit, and The North, and won prizes in the Arvon Daily Telegraph Competition 2000 and the London Writers Competition 2001. Her first collection, Mollusc was published by Comma Press in 2004.

Polly Clark was born in Toronto in 1968 and brought up in Lancashire, Cumbria and the Borders of Scotland. In 1997 she received an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry. Her first collection Kiss (Bloodaxe) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. 

David Constantine’s poetry collections include Madder, Watching for Dolphins, The Pelt of Wasps, Caspar Hauser, and most recently Something for the Ghosts, which was shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Poetry Prize. He is a translator of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Enzensberger, Michaux and Jaccottet.

Matthew Francis’ first collection of poetry, Blizzard (Faber), was shortlisted for the Forward First Book Prize and the Welsh Book of the Year and his poem, ‘The Ornamental Hermit’, won first prize in the TLS/Blackwell’s Poetry Competition. His second collection is Dragons (Faber, 2001). 

Sophie Hannah has published four collections of poetry - The Hero and the Girl Next Door, Hotels Like Houses, Leaving and Leaving You and First of Last Chances (all Carcanet). She was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge and a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

John Latham has published five collections of poetry, including All Clear and The Unbearable Weight of Mercury (both Peterloo Poets), and has won first prize in about 20 UK poetry competitions. He has had several plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and is a regular tutor to the Arvon Foundation and the Taliesin Trust.

Joanne Limburg was born in London in 1970. She studied philosophy at Cambridge, and has since gained an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies and Part 1 of a Diploma in Careers Guidance. She won an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1998. Her collection Femenismo (Bloodaxe) was shortlisted for Forward Prize Best First Collection.

Grevel Lindop is a former Professor of Romantic Studies and British Academy Research Reader at Manchester University. His collections of poetry include Against the Sea, Fools’ Paradise, Tourists, Moon’s Palette and A Prismatic Toy (all Carcanet). He has also published several critical works including A Literary Guide to the Lake District (Chatto). 

Originally from Fife, Roddy Lumsden now lives in Bristol working as a freelance writer, teacher and puzzle compiler. He has published three collections of poetry and in Autumn 2004, Mischief Night: New and Selected Poems is due from Bloodaxe. Also next Autumn, Chambers will publish Vitamin Q, a miscellany of lists and articles from his cult website of that name.

Ian McMillan first made his name through his work with the Poetry Circus in the early 1980s. Since then he has become famous for his work in schools, radio, as Poet in Residence for Barnsley Football Club, and in poetry venues across the country. He has published five collections of poetry including Selected Poems and I Found this Shirt (Carcanet).

Born in Belfast in 1972, Sinéad Morrissey published two collections of poetry: There Was Fire in Vancouver and Between Here and There (both Carcanet). She is currently Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast

Sean O'Brien has published four award-winning collections of poems, most recently Downriver, which won the 2002 Forward Prize for Best Collection. His essays have been collected in The Deregulated Muse: Essays on Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (Bloodaxe) and he has translated Aristophanes’ The Birds (Methuen). He was editor of The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland After 1945, and currently lives in Newcastle.

Ruth Padel has won the National Poetry Competition and published five poetry collections; her most recent, Voodoo Shop (Chatto), was shortlisted for the Whitbread and T S Eliot Prizes. Her next, The Soho Leopard, is out in 2004. Her critical book 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem (Chatto) was based on her newspaper column ‘The Sunday Poem’.

Shenagh Pugh’s poetry has won many awards, including the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 1998, the Bridport Prize, the PHRAS prize, the Cardiff International Poetry Prize (twice) and the British Comparative Literature Association’s Translation Prize. Her most recent collection, The Beautiful Lie (Seren) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Joe Sheerin was born in Leitrim in 1941. His poems have been published in three previous books, A Crack in the Ice (Dolmen Press), the Oxford Poets 2000 anthology (Carcanet), and Elves in the Wainscoting (Carcanet). He is a lecturer and currently lives in Brighton. 

Jean Sprackland’s first collection of poetry, Tattoos for Mothers Day (Spike), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 1999. Her second collection, Hard Water (Cape) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and has been shortlisted for the 2003 TS Eliot Award. She lives in Southport.

Anne Stevenson was born in England of American parents, grew up in the States but then lived in Britain for most of her adult life. She has published twelve collections of poetry, a book of essays, Between the Iceberg and the Ship, a recent critical study, Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop, and a biography of Sylvia Plath, Bitter Fame. Her most recent collections are Granny Scarecrow and Report from the Border (both Bloodaxe).Gerard Woodward is the author of three collections of poetry, The Householder, After the Deafening and Island to Island (all Chatto), and a shorter pamplet The Unwriter (Sycamore). He has received an Eric Gregory and a Somerset Maughan Award. His first novel August was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Prize.

Cliff Yates is the author of 14 Ways of Listening to the Archers and Henry’s Clock (both Smiths Doorstop), winner of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival prize. As Poetry Society poet-in-residence he wrote Jumpstart Poetry in the Secondary School (Poetry Society). He has received an Arts Council England Writer’s Award.