Bloggers in Residence Bio’s
Adam Fieled
Adam Fieled is a poet based in Philadelphia. He has released four books, four chapbooks, and edits two blogs. He is a PhD candidate at Temple University.
http://adamfieled.blogspot.com
Amina Adewusi
Amina Adewusi is in her final year of BSc Social Policy at the London School of Economics. She was born to a Nigerian father and English mother in Whitechapel, where they brought her up with her two sisters.
Bernadine Evaristo
British author. Latest novel Blonde Roots (Africans enslave Europeans). Also writes poetry, short stories, drama, for commissions, teaches a bit, tours hither and thither…
http://www.bevaristo.wordpress.com
Chris Mlalazi
Chris Mlalazi uses his writing to laugh at all those who bring harm to humanity. He also like the divine feeling of recreation that goes with art, sort of playing the Creator.
http://www.chris-writingseriously.blogspot.com
In May 2008 he published a short story collection titled DANCING WITH LIFE AND OTHER SHORT STORIES.
http://www.africanbookscollective.com/authors-editors/christopher-mlalazi
Daisy Hirst
Daisy Hirst is 25 and comes from London, she has just completed an internship in the Poetry Library, working on Lemn Sissay’s Poetry Project.
David Morley
David Morley is the author of nine books of poetry and the editor of six anthologies of new fiction and poetry. He also makes poetry films for the web. He writes criticism, essays and reviews for The Guardian, PN Review and Poetry Review as well as international journals. He recently published a new book of Romany poems The Invisible Kings, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. David is Director of the Warwick Writing Programme at The University of Warwick where he is Professor of Writing.
Gists and Piths
Gists and Piths is a blog dedicated to the discussion and publication of contemporary poetry. It is edited by George Ttoouli and Simon Turner.
http://gistsandpiths.blogspot.com
Gizella Ojadi
Hello there, my name is Gizella Ojadi, I am a performing arts student studying triple science A Level. Weird I know but I am more than one person. Thankfully, this project will show that.
Julie Palmer-Hoffman
Julie Palmer-Hoffman is a freelance writer, editor and blogger. She thinks of London as something of a literary Shangri-La and prides herself on being a massive book geek. Julie writes for two blogs: http://londonist.com and http://www.litro.co.uk/?category_name=blog.
Karen McCarthy
Karen McCarthy writes poetry, drama, short fiction and her blog www.blaglady.com. Her chapbook The Worshipful Company of Pomegranate Slicers was selected as a New Statesman Book of the Year in 2006.
Katy Evans-Bush
Katy Evans-Bush’s debut poetry collection, Me and the Dead, is published by Salt, and her reviews and essays appear regularly on both sides of the Atlantic. Her blog, Baroque in Hackney (www.baroqueinhackney.com), was cited as one of the top ten book blogs by Marion Boyars publishers (The Bookaholic’s Guide to Book Blogs).
Melanie Abrahams
Melanie Abrahams loves words, music and film and instigates spoken word and multi-media events as a producer and curator. She’s Director of National Association of Literature Development (NALD)
Michael Oladeji
Michael Oladeji is a cool, collected, quiet person. He likes to laugh but only when necessary, not just randomly because that is a really weird thing to do.
Micheal Griffiths
Michael Griffiths is a student currently in her final year of A-levels, aspiring to go to university. She’s also a Christian and she is interested in history and cultural studies.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is on the council of the Arvon Foundation and works as an editor for flipped eye publishing. His debut novel Tail of the Blue Bird (Jonathan Cape) will be published in June 2009 and he is the current International Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton.
Public comment
Comments from the general public about Poetry International 08.
Rachel Holmes
Writer Rachel Holmes is Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre. She is the author of The Hottentot Venus: the life and death of Saartjie Baartman (2007) and The Secret Life of Dr James Barry (2002). Her radical memoir of Eleanor Marx is published by Bloomsbury in 2011. Rachel is chair of Africa Beyond, patron and founder of Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign, and a keen surfer.
Samara Straker
Hi it’s me. Samara. I’m the most koolest girl you’ll ever meet. I wear pink trainers and always have my headphones nearby. Music and Poetry is my life. Life is a film and film is a metaphor. The world belongs to me! I know I’m different, some would say but I’m still the koolest girl who ever walked the face of the earth! Right now I’m looking to stimulate my creativity so please… inspire me!
Sarah Butler
Sarah Butler is a writer and literature consultant, with an interest in how writing can explore, reveal and strengthen our relationship with place.
Sara Debevec
Currently doing Urban Studies masters at UCL. I like coffee,Bukowski, interesting conversations, writing songs and strumming my patient guitar.
http://sarasowingseeds.wordpress.com
Siege Malvar
Siege Malvar is a performance artist, poet, and novelist. He is part of the Speechless project by the British Council, Arts Council, and Apples & Snakes. He is from the Philippines, and he spends insane amounts of time online playing games and blogging.
Street Genius
A team of young bloggers from South London are creatively responding to Poetry International, with their mentor Yemisi Blake. They are Gizella Ojadi, Micheal Griffiths, Michael Oladeji and Samara Straker. Their blog is part of SOWF’s Street Genius programme.
SOWF is a project sponsored and supported by the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter which aims to put young people at the heart of the arts as visitors, creators and advocates.
Swithun Cooper
Swithun Cooper is a library assistant for the Poetry Library at Southbank Centre. In his spare time he puts on events with the feminist collective Manifesta.
Yemisi Blake
Yemisi Blake is a freelance creative. He’s currently an Emerging Artist in Residence at The Southbank Centre, where he writes, performs, blogs and mentors young creatives.
Poetry International 2008 at Southbank Centre | 24 Oct - 1 Nov | The world's best poetry live and out loud 
October 27, 2008 at 11:37 pm
[…] a guest blogger in residence for the week. The Southbank Centre’s assembled quite the formidable group of poets and writers, an impressive array of accomplishments among them – not only as part of the lineup for the […]
October 29, 2008 at 11:45 pm
[…] the image on the left,you’ll be taken to the Poetry International Blog where yours truly is a Blogger-in-Residence. It would be really awesome if you guys could check out that blog regularly, and get yourself […]