Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. His most recent book of poems is Material Properties (2023). His fourth book of poems, Jackself (2016), won the T.S. Eliot Prize. His previous books are The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006) and The Havocs (2012). His novel Talk of the Town (2009 ) won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2010. All of his books are published by Picador, UK. In 2011, he was Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, 2005-7. He has also been Poet in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust. In 2004, he was named one of the ‘Next Generation’ of the twenty best new poets in Britain. He teaches at Newcastle University and lives with his family on the north-east coast.
Helen Mort is a poet and novelist from Sheffield. Her poetry collection Division Street is published by Chatto & Windus and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Prize. Her second collection No Map Could Show Them explored the history of women’s mountaineering and started life in Banff.
John Aitchison is a wildlife filmmaker and writer. He most often films for the BBC, working on many series including Planet Earth 2, Seven Worlds: One Planet, Frozen Planet, Springwatch and Dynasties. He produced The Amber Time Machine, presented by David Attenborough, for The Natural World series. He has also worked for National Geographic, PBS and Discovery Channel. His awards include a joint BAFTA and a joint Primetime Creative Emmy, both for the cinematography of Frozen Planet. John has presented several series about wildlife on BBC Radio 4. Some of these stories became the basis for his book, The Shark and the Albatross. John lives in Scotland where he is involved in marine conservation, through the Coastal Communities Network.
www.johnaitchison.net
Jane Caven is a former plc director (public limited company) and co-founder of a successful management consultancy; she is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and holds an MSc in business. Jane also holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and after 42 years in business has returned to this, her first and enduring passion.
A keen reader, she enjoys a broad range of genres, but particularly both classical and contemporary poetry. Since retiring in 2020 Jane has become a volunteer at Wordsworth Grasmere, where she is a member of the Poetry Readers group who recite to visitors to Dove Cottage and the Museum.
Tom Mustill is a biologist turned filmmaker and writer, specialising in stories where people and nature meet. His first book How To Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication won several awards, was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022 and has been translated into 13 languages. His film collaborations, many with Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough, have won two Webbys, a BAFTA, and an Emmy nomination, gone viral, been played at the UN, in Times Square, and on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.He lives in Cornwall and is an ambassador for Whale and Dolphin Conservation.
Helen Wilson is a Creative Health Consultant with over a decade of experience in taking literature to everyday places, for profound results. She has formerly embedded creative reading groups in NHS, HMPPS and community settings across the UK and abroad, including as the national creative activities provider lead for the National Offender Personality Disorder Programme. Building upon her interest in the therapeutic potential of the arts to give shape to our experiences, Helen is now in her final year of psychodynamic psychotherapy training, a creative modality which seeks to address the root cause of human difficulties and – perhaps like literature – find meaning in our lives, even if through the greatest suffering. She has a particular, lifelong love of poetry.
Helen Mort is a poet and novelist from Sheffield. Her poetry collection Division Street is published by Chatto & Windus and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Prize. Her second collection No Map Could Show Them explored the history of women’s mountaineering and started life in Banff. Her latest, The Illustrated Woman, looks at the power of body modification and the role of the ‘tattooed lady’ in society. She has also published a novel Black Car Burning set in Sheffield. Her memoir A Line Above The Sky examines the relationship between mountains and motherhood. It won the 2022 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. Much of her work is concerned with connections between landscape(s) and the body.
www.helenmort.com