Come along to the Cambridge launch of Words And Women: Two

Melody Causton

The event is free and there’s a great line-up. We have music by highly acclaimed local singer-songwriter Melody Causton and readings by a brilliant array of women writers who live in or near Cambridge. Hear Anthea Morrison and Louise Ells, Lora Stimson and Melissa Fu read from their stories included in our second anthology of prose writing, hear the exciting work of Patricia Debney and Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown who both have books coming out this year and next. Leigh Chambers of Bookmark on Cambridge 105 is compere! See below for everybody’s profiles.

The event takes place on June 2^nd at Hot Numbers Café, on Gwydir Street.  Doors open at 6.30pm, and there will be opportunities to meet the writers and enjoy a drink at the bar before the readings at 7pm.  Everyone is welcome, and copies of the book, praised as ‘an excellent anthology of imaginative and superbly written pieces’ (Eastern Daily Press), will be on sale.

Our writers and performers on the night:

Melody Causton has released her first EP, supported a number of respected folk acts such as Megson and has won 'Best female solo artist' at Cambridge's NMG awards for the last two years running. https://melodycauston.bandcamp.com/

Leigh Chambers

Leigh Chambers hosts the fortnightly radio show, Bookmark, on Cambridge 105 and also a mid-morning show. Last year she signed with DHH Literary Agency and is currently awaiting news about her first novel, Scapa Flow, set in 1940s Orkney.

Patricia Debney

Patricia Debney’s recent publications include Gestation (Shearsman Chapbooks, 2014) and a collection of prose poems, Littoral (Shearsman Books, 2013). Her first collection, How to Be a Dragonfly (Smith Doorstop Books), won the 2004 Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition; her next collection Baby is published by Liquorice Fish Books in 2016. A former Canterbury Laureate, she is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Louise Ells

Louise Ells has a Creative Writing MA from Bath Spa University and is now pursuing a PhD at Anglia Ruskin University.  Her thesis comprises Lacunae, a collection of thematically linked short stories, and a critical commentary examining Alice Munro’s revision strategies in Dear Life.  She’s recently had stories published in The Masters Review and Harts & Minds.

Melissa Fu

Melissa Fu is writing a collection of memoir-style pieces based on growing up in the Rocky Mountains. She is an active member of the Angles writing workshop, based in Cambridge.  In 2014, she started leading and facilitating Writing Circles, small writing groups in Cambridgeshire designed to create community and cultivate writers' voices. 

Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown

Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown’s short fiction has appeared in Mslexia, The Scotsman and in a collection from The National Galleries of Scotland. Her first novel, The Words in my Hand, which won the 2014 Pen Factor Award, is out in Germany in September and January 2016 in the UK. The novel tells the story of the secret love between French philosopher, Rene Descartes, and Dutch servant maid, Helena Jans - a story kept hidden at the time and almost lost from history since.

Anthea Morrison

Anthea Morrison grew up in Hertfordshire and has lived in London, Cambridge and New York, where she first realised her passion for creative writing at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Now back in Cambridge, she is an active member of the local Angles writing workshop. Anthea has had stories published online, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway University.

Lora Stimson

Lora Stimson studied creative writing at Norwich School of Art & Design and UEA. She has published stories and poems with Nasty Little Press, Unthank Books, Ink, Sweat and Tears and Streetcake Magazine. In 2014 she was mentored by novelist Shelley Harris as part of the WoMentoring scheme. Her first novel, about sex, grief and model villages, currently hides in a drawer. She has higher hopes for her second novel, about twins, which received an Arts Council England grant and is now in its final edit. Lora won Words And Women’s prose writing competition 2014/15.