Crossroads Anthology 2018
By the students on the NTU MA Creative Writing course
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"Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after." - An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir
This year, the NTU MA Creative Writing class chose to explore the idea of Crossroads. Of the decisions encountered during our lives, whether we approach it ourselves or are forced there. We are storytellers, poets, and with the influence of the professional writers and poets in these pages, we hope to show you what Crossroads means to us.
Meet The Writers!
David Belbin
David Belbin's most recent book is 'Provenance: New and Collected Stories' (Shoestring Press). He is currently working on the fourth novel in his Bone and Cane sequence and co-editing an anthology to celebrate the 25th anniversary of NTU's MA in Creative Writing, for publication in autumn, 2019.
Jo Weston
Jo Weston is a poetry, fiction and travel writer. Her work has been published in Left Lion, Between the Lines, Missing Pieces, Monster Anthology and Small Acts of Kindness. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the following year was longlisted in the Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition. In 2017 she was Writer-in-Residence at Maggie’s Nottingham.
Twitter: @JoWestn
Michael Eaton
Michael Eaton was Visiting Professor for the M.A. in Creative Writing from 2006-2012. As a dramatist he has worked in film, television, radio and theatre. His latest play was an adaptation of Great Expectations and his most recent book is Charlie Peace – His Amazing Life and Astounding Legend about the real-life and the fictional after-life of a Victorian master criminal.
Peter Scales
Pete Scales is a retired university lecturer in Education. He is a keen reader of short stories, especially Ray Bradbury, James Joyce and Chekhov. He is the author of several textbooks on teaching but has decided to do something more creative. Becoming a student again is part of his ongoing mission to avoid growing up.
Liv Gamble
Liv Gamble mainly writes short stories but dabbles in performance poetry. She’s currently writing her first novel for young adults. She’s partial to writing in most genres, but her favourites are action/adventure, science fiction, horror and drama, with LGBT+ themes mixed in. This is her first publication.
William Ivory
William was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. He attended the Minster School and London University. However, he left university after only a year and became a dustman. He has written for film, TV and theatre, including Made in Dagenham, Burton and Taylor and Bombers Moon. He is currently Visiting Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University.
Sheena Bradley
Sheena is from Northern Ireland but has lived in Nottingham for over 30 years. Since retirement she has been writing - mainly poetry.
A short story was published in Beacon, and six poems in Reach. Others have been accepted for Reach, Sarasvati and Dawntreader but not yet appeared in print.
Twitter: @weesheenanigan
Rory Waterman
Rory Waterman has two poetry collections from Carcanet: Tonight the Summer's Over (2013, a PBS Recommendation) and Sarajevo Roses (2017). His other books include Poets of the Second World War (Northcote House, 2016). He co-edits New Walk Editions, and writes regular criticism for the TLS, Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
Jackie Mills
Jackie’s previous work includes crime fiction and stage-plays. Social justice and environmental themes recur. Her work is accessible, rooted in the lives of ordinary people, and in her experiences growing up and working in disadvantaged communities. She is currently writing a screenplay about the 1990 anti poll tax rebellion.
Fiona Theokritoff
Fiona Theokritoff writes mostly poetry; this year she has also discovered the thrill of screenplay. She has been on the planet long enough to have had three careers – in children’s publishing, in complementary health and currently as a creative writing tutor. Her poems have appeared in Mslexia, The Interpreter’s House and Under the Radar.
Gill Middle
Interested in life changes and world chaos, Gill Middle writes fiction for Children and Young Adults to help them understand their lives, experience other worlds or escape with Magic realism. She also writes for Radio and Screen. Her current novel-in-progress is a Young Adult contemporary adventure set against a Cornish landscape.
Alice Baines
Alice is a writer who specialises in Fantasy, Science Fiction and even a bit of Historical fiction. All of which include romance. This will be her first official publication, after several years of online publishing on public forums and blogging.
Richard Robbins
Richard Robbins was raised in California and Montana but has lived continuously in Minnesota since 1984. His Body Turn To Rain: New & Selected Poems was published in Lynx House Press's Northwest Masters Series in 2017.
Marsha Myles
Marsha is a hardworking mother of three. Born in the 70's to a black Jamaican man and white British mother she enjoys writing in her spare time. Currently trying her hand at young adult fiction, some would say her writing is provocative; Marsha prefers her son's description, "It's real".
Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner taught in primary schools for more than forty years before deciding that she wants to be a writer when she grows up. Before moving to Nottingham in 2016 she wrote regularly for Barrow Voice Magazine. More recently, she has had stories published in Left Lion and 50GS.
Ed Smith
Ed Smith is a Nottingham born writer and graduate of Nottingham Trent University. His work is often in prose as well as scripts and he has been writing from a young age. Ed’s work focuses on issues of gender, the LGBT+ community as well as explorations of wider culture.
Mariano Doronzo
Mariano is an Italian poet and photographer based in Nottingham. After his engineering studies, he moved to England in 2013 where he started writing intensively. In April 2016, his poetry book Echi del mio tempo (Echoes of my time) was published in Italy and won the Pre-mio Polverni national award for poetry. In July 2016, he completed a creative writing course at Scuola Holden - Storytelling and Performing Arts, in Turin (Italy). His photographic work is shown in solo and collective exhibitions in both Italy and England.
Holly Staniford
Holly is a teacher, writer, dreamer and founder of Fish in a Tree. Most of her working days are spent in Derbyshire woodland, where she runs her Wild Writing classes and imagination based forest school sessions. She is an active blogger for outdoor learning platforms and writes stories for children and young adults.
Anna Read
Anna Read lives in Newstead in Nottingham. She has a blog on WordPress called “Can Daytime TV Cure Cancer?” that documents her life living with cancer. She has had work published “#dearcancer Things to Help you Through” an anthology complied by Victoria Derbyshire to help people living with cancer.
Amelia Guttridge
Amelia Guttridge is an aspiring novelist and filmmaker, with a particular interest in family/relationship drama and comedy. She hopes to write about her many personal hang-ups in a way that endears her to you. She (just about) balances her MA with full time work, and lived in Italy for a year.
Steph Nidd
Despite graduating from an art based course, creative writing has been a long standing hobby and interest of Steph's. With an interest in Fantasy (both high and modern fantasies) and science-fiction, Steph is currently working towards getting her own novel finished.
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Steph has also completed the fantastic cover art for our anthology, check out her other work here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halfelf558/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/halfelf558/
Website: https://www.stephanidd.co.uk/
Tumblr: http://halfelf558.tumblr.com/
Emma Reid
Emma Reid has been writing on and off since primary school, and is taking time to actually work through her first novel. In her free time, she goes camping, dresses up in silly costumes, and play video games.
Ashton Powell
Ashton has been writing fiction and poetry since her teens. Whilst she is interested in poetry and has been published in the Poetry Rivals anthologies, her real passion is in fantasy and supernatural fiction. She is currently working on her first novel.
Naomi Lamb
Naomi is an alumna of NTU with a preference for speculative fiction. When not writing she works in a restaurant, creates costumes, and attempts to become a good swordfighter.
Liza-Jane Bowling
Liza-Jane is from Huntsville, Alabama and received her BA in Creative Writing at Auburn University. She writes poetry and fiction but focuses mostly on poetry. She gets most of her inspirations from music, films and music videos. She is currently working on some short stories and putting together her first poetry collection. This is her first official publication.
Instagram: l.jpoetry