About the Authors

Leena Normington

Leena is a Masters student at Warwick University and at the weekends works as a bookseller. 

In her spare time she runs a poetry, music & arts night in Coventry called 'Down The Rabbit Hole' and runs a youtube channel and blog about books. She only has one moto in life: 'Everything in Moderation.' ... except lipstick and 90s movies. 

Her YA novel is a second person narrative loosely based on the tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Leena's Blog

Leena's YouTube Channel

Professional contact: justkissmyfrog@gmail.com

Amy Baumhoefner

A native Minnesotan I escaped the cold and moved to the rainy land of the English Midlands in pursuit of advancing my education by earning a MA in Literature. This change also allowed me the get back to one of my passions: writing. 

While I enjoy exploring whatever story pops into my head, I've found that I love YA fantasy the most; both as a reader and a writer. So, not surprisingly, it is in that vein my contribution to Read Me: An YA Anthology travels. You will also find that many of my book reviews will track along that line. 

If you want to catch up with my adventures of living abroad, check out my blog:

AmysAdventuresInEngland

I'm also obsessed with taking pictures and putting them on Tumblr:
Amy's Adventures

Professional contact: KahlerCreations@gmail.com

Sian Lorna Dawson

My name’s Lorna Dawson. I’m 21 and have loved writing since I was about 8 years old. I write songs and short pieces of psychological fiction. I’m currently working on a dystopian novel set in a world where knowledge costs money; even asking someone’s name. If there’s one piece of advice I could give about writing, it would be that weird is good; just because people don’t understand it first time, doesn’t mean it’s no good.

Emily Simpson

Emily enjoys writing psychological suspense and dark realism for young adults.

A previous member of Curtis Brown Creative, she has learned from some exciting industry figures and is now en route to gaining her Masters in Writing, at the University of Warwick.

She is working on her first novel and is excited to be the Editor of the first Read Me Anthology. 

Professional contact: e_simpson@hotmail.co.uk

Katherine (K.A.) Dunn

Katherine is a travel bug who has lived in Japan, Australia and Europe. She is studying for an MA in English Literature at Warwick, but has been determined to become a writer since writing her first story in Infants school about a girl who dreamed she lived in a land made out of chocolate. If she's honest, a land of chocolate would be her number one dream, but she'll take being a writer as second prize in life. She enjoys reading fantasy, historical novels and YA, and is writing a novel set in post-apocalyptic London, where the only society that exists is the one you build for yourself.

She blogs about original writing, fan fiction, and why the two complement each other at: 

WithTeaAndInk

Professional contact: WithTeaAndInk@gmail.com

Gill Othen

Gill is determined to live her life upside-down and inside-out. She graduated from Durham University with a BA in English and a PGCE, and spent more years than she’d like to admit teaching English and Drama, before taking early retirement and her GAP year. Now she is throwing herself into as many learning opportunities as possible, doing an MA in English over two years so she can do as many extra courses as possible.

Gill spent many years using her job as an excuse to read as much writing for children and young people as she could, and is now finding fulfilment in contributing to the genre. She has two daughters who are ready and willing to put her right if she jumps to wrong conclusions or embarrasses them in any way.

Jenny Mak

Jenny enjoys experimenting with different genres and lets the story and the characters take her wherever they may go. She writes novels, short stories, poetry and screenplays, and was also a journalist for a couple of youth magazines. From young, she has read anything that has words on it (even that sheet of paper that comes with the McDonald's tray), but her fiction tastes have found themselves in mystery, fantasy, contemporary fiction and anything offbeat. Coming from a migrant background, she sees no boundaries in writing and hopes to be bold in all her creative endeavors.

She is currently working on a YA novel about a boy trapped in a great underground prison without any memory of his crime, who struggles to escape this terrible place and discover his identity.

Victor Lockwood

Coming from the French side of the Alps, I left my snowy hometown two years ago to start a new adventure in the Midlands. 

I chose to leave for two reasons: Warwick University seemed to be a great place to continue my studies in English Literature, and, more importantly, I wanted to broaden my horizons and enrich my writing by meeting other aspiring authors.

I have always wanted to become an author, and I started writing my novel almost seven years ago. I see it as being part of a series of books: I am currently polishing the first volume, while starting to write the second. Although the novel is written in French, what you will find in this anthology is a whole chapter that I translated in English myself. This experience was exhilarating for me: I realised it was as much a creative exercise as it was a linguistic one. I like to describe my novel as first and foremost a political thriller, and the sci-fi universe in which it is set allows me to explore a variety of themes and tensions that I would not be able to explore otherwise. 

professional contact: vic560@hotmail.fr

Shadya Ahmed

Shadya is from the Middle East and sees doing a masters degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick as the perfect opportunity to expand on the thing she loves most, writing. Coming from a career in journalism she recognizes the importance of facts, but also understands the need to escape the sometimes harsh reality of life to an alternate reality where the reader is taken on a complete journey even if for a few minutes into a magical world. She especially enjoys the thrill of working on short stories and the challenge they pose in trying to fit an entire story into a couple of pages. She is currently working on a series of short stories that include alternate realities that are accessible through a mysterious door factory that pop up when you least expect it!

Professional Contact: shadyaradhi@gmail.com

Kate Edwards

Kate is a writer and performer. She trained as an actor and clown in Paris, following which she set up a theatre company called Jammy Voo with an all-female troupe of fellow graduates. They have since toured the UK and abroad and managed to acquire an enthusiastic following in Algeria along the way.

She has also spent two years honing her writing skills as a part-time student on the MA in Writing at Warwick. Her novel for young adults - Sea Tambourine was inspired by a visit a few years ago to the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle. Here she came across the original sea tambourine that once belonged to a Cornish sea witch known as Kate The Gull Turner and from there a story started to form.

Professional Contact: kateedwardsmail@gmail.com