Belinda O'Hooley hosts the concert at the Grand Opera House. Belinda was part of award winning folk act ‘Rachel Unthank & the Winterset’ winning the Radio 2 Horizon Award this year. She will be abandoning her trusty piano as she stands solo to compere our evening of entertainment.
Clare Summerskill is a well-known and loved comedienne and musician As a Lesbian Comedienne, Clare performs an original cocktail of stand-up and comedy songs to mainly Gay and Lesbian audiences up and down the country and has even been known to make straight people chuckle just a little bit!!! She brings "Dyke" humour to the forefront of alternative comedy!
One of the funniest women in the country" - Whats On "Uninhibited and Unorthodox" - The Independent
Erin McKeown is a singer songwriter from New York. From elegant pop to balls-out rock,sweet electronics to witty swing, Erin McKeown has packed a ton of music into her young career.. With 5 albums, 2 EPs, and numerous soundtracks and compilations to her credit, the 29-year-old songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hasn't stopped for a breather in the last 10 years. Along the way she has averaged 200 shows a year and garnered the praise of fans and critics alike. McKeown's newest release is Lafayette, a rollicking evening with her six-piece Little Big Band. "In several distinctive ways - voice, dynamic subtlety, and sheer songwriting ability - Erin McKeown is in a class of her own." - Sunday Times
GREYMATTER are a five piece band based in Berkshire. Their songs are a collaboration of thought provoking lyrics, layered instrumentals and expressive harmonies that come together to create a unique acoustic sound. Widely renowned for delivering their music with the most passionate performance you may ever see GREYMATTER would leave any music lover wanting more. ‘Greymatter kicked off the evening (Freshly Squeezeds 'L of a Night' with a brilliant set which had the audience on their feet. They may not have been the most familiar name on the bill, but these girls (and their drummer Bob) are surely destined for bigger things. Already likened to the Indigo Girls, they are an engaging bunch with tremendous talent, great lyrics and superb instrumentals.’
Jen Brister is a stand-up comedian from South London. She has performed in London venues that include Comedy Camp, Comedy Store, and Big Night Out as well as hosting her own nights that include Hysterics at Shaun & Joe and CatFlap Comedy at the Player Bar, Soho. Brister starred in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2006 with her show "Me, My Mother and I. She is currently working for BBC 6 Music as a stand in presenter. “I like to cycle on my bicycle through London inhaling carbon monoxide, running with the night playing in the shadows, living the vida loca cause my skin's the colour of mocha, butter (it's great stuff), women (they're lovely).”
Cherry Pott's curiosity has led to several careers, from housing, via performance management and analysis, to senior management in IT, and she now owns her own life coaching and NLP based training company, Change from Choice. As well as 2 collections of short stories she has written and published poetry, illustrated a children's book and creates subversive greetings cards under the Daft Dyke imprint. She lives in South London with her partner of 26 years, and the traditional trio of cats.
Constance McCullagh is an Irish writer, feminist activist and lesbian romantic. Funny Peculiar, her memoir, is a celebration of life and love despite the pain of child sexual abuse. Her first lesbian novel, Goldigger, a story of love, loss, greed and hope in famine Ireland and the American wildwest, will be published next year.
Cindy Cresap’s editing career began when she was an undergraduate at Yale University, where she was a writer, writing instructor, and managing editor for a national college guide published by St. Martin’s Press. She now has over ten years’ experience in both fiction and non-fiction editing. She has served as substantive editor for over twenty novels, several anthologies, and numerous short stories. For over four years, she was the managing editor for a lesbian small press, where she was also responsible for manuscript reviews and acquisitions.
Crin Claxton writes novels, short stories and poetry. Her novel Scarlet Thirst was published by Red Hot Diva Books. She has had short stories published in Girls Next Door (Women’s Press), Va Va Voom (Red Hot Diva), Lessons in Love (Bold Strokes Books), Extreme Passions (Bold Strokes Books), Road Games (Bold Strokes Books), Fantasy (Bella Books), the Butch Cook Book and magazines: Diva Magazine, Carve webzine, and Suspect Thoughts webzine. Poetry has appeared in Naming the Waves, La Pluma and A Class of Their Own. Crin is the Festival Director and Book Festival Programmer for YLAF. More info on www.crinclaxton.com and www.myspace.com/crinclaxton. Her blog column Butch About Town can be read on http://butchaboutown.blogspot.com
Dorothea Smartt is a poet and live artist. Described as "accessible & dynamic", her work was selected to promote the best of contemporary writing in Europe today. Dubbed 'Brit-born Bajan international' [Kamau Braithwaite], she is SABLE LitMag’s poetry editor. Her first poetry collection “Connecting Medium” [2001, Peepal Tree Press], is highly praised as the work of. “...A master artist who sculpts both Standard and Caribbean English into a variety of poetic forms...capable of boldly crossing cultural boundaries" [Caribbean Writer] it also features a Forward Poetry Prize 'highly commended poem', and includes poems from her performance works “Medusa” and “From You To Me To You” [An ICA Live Art commission].
Helen Larder was born in Yorkshire in 1958 and now lives
in the High Peaks, in Derbyshire with her partner and their daughter. As
well as writing, her time is spent teaching teenagers, as well as degree and postgraduate students.
Helen Sandler has been involved with YLAF from the start and even ran it for two years before seeing sense. Among other things, Helen freelances for Diva magazine and promotes the Stanza @ LaDanza arts night in north London. She has edited three Diva anthologies and written an improper book called Big Deal and a proper one called The Touch Typist. She performs her poems to anyone who will listen.
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a white Scottish mother and a black Nigerian father. She was adopted by a Scottish white couple Helen and John Kay and brought up in Bishopbriggs, a suburb of Glasgow.
Kay was brought up in a 1950s-built Glasgow housing estate in a small Wimpey house, which her adoptive parents had bought from new in 1957. They adopted Kay in 1961 having already adopted Kay's brother, Maxwell, about 2 years earlier. Kay and Maxwell also have siblings who were brought up by her genetic parents. Kay's adoptive father worked for the communist party full-time and stood for Member of Parliament, and her adoptive mother was the Scottish secretary of CND. In August 2007 Kay was the subject of the forth episode of The House I Grew Up In, in which she talked about a happy childhood in a stimulating, albeit unconventional, home.
Initially harbouring ambitions to be an actress, she decided to concentrate on writing after Alasdair Gray read her poetry and told her that writing was what she should be doing. She studied English at the University of Stirling and her first book of poetry, the partially autobiographical The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991, and won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award. Her other awards include the 1994 Somerset Maugham Award for Other Lovers, and the Guardian Fiction Prize for Trumpet, based on the life of Billy Tipton. She writes extensively for children, stage and screen. She has a son, Matthew, and until 2004 lived in Manchester with her former partner, the poet Carol Ann Duffy.
Kay became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 17 June 2006.
She currently teaches creative writing at Newcastle University.
Jane Fletcher lives in southwest England, surrounded by enough historic sites to keep her happy. She is author of two fantasy/romance series: the Lyremouth Chronicles and the Celaeno series. Her novels have twice won GCLS awards and been short-listed for both the Gaylactic Spectrum and Lambda awards.
Jane Traies has been associated with the Festival for most of its history, atdifferent times as an author, facilitator, Board member and events manager.She currently organizes the marketplace and looks after the Friends of YLAF.
After completing a degree in French and History at QMC, University of London, Jane Marlow trained as an actress at Mountview Theatre School. She acted for TV, theatre and radio before moving into journalism.
Jane has been working as a scriptwriter for four years and has written extensively for TV including The Sarah Jane Adventures, Hollyoaks, The Bill, Bad Girls and Doctors. She has been nominated for a Soap Award and Writers’ Guild Awards for her work on Hollyoaks and The Bill. Her novel Maddie & Anna’s Big Picture and short story The Suffragette were published by Diva Books.
Jennifer Fulton is the author of eighteen romance and mystery novels under three pen names - Jennifer Fulton, Rose Beecham, and Grace Lennox. She was first published by the Naiad Press in 1992. These days she is published by Bold Strokes Books. Jennifer is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader's award for Lesbian Fiction, multiple Golden Crown Literary Award winner, and Lambda Literary Award finalist for both romance and mystery.
Julie Cannon is a native of Phoenix , Arizona where she lives with her partner Laura and their two children. Julie's day job is in Corporate America and her nights are spent bringing to life the stories that bounce around in her head throughout the day. When not writing Julie and Laura spend their time camping, and lounging around the pool with their kids. Julie is the author of four romances published by Bold Strokes Books; Come and Get Me, Heart 2 Heart, Heartland, and the just released Uncharted Passage. She has short story selections in Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions, Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games, and Romantic Interludes 1: Discovery.
At home both in New York City and in Brussels, Justine Saracen has traveled widely in the Middle East. A one-time professor of literature, she is the author of “The 100^th Generation,” and “Vulture’s Kiss. Her multiple preoccupations with Ancient Egyptology, the Crusades, Arab culture, and the Renaissance produce a rich broth from which she cooks up delicious feasts of adventure and passion. Behind it all, however, is a critique of religion. Half in jest and whole in earnest, she proposes that the various Almighty Fathers are thugs and the love between women is the best way out from under them. She has just completed Sistine Heresy (Bold Strokes Books, Feb. 2009), a shocking LGBT story of Michelangelo’s /real /inspirations for the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Upcoming projects in include “Mephisto Aria,” a Faustian saga set in WWII, and the world of opera. You can visit her website at http://justinesaracen.googlepages.com.
Karen McLeod's debut novel In Search of the Missing Eyelash was published last year by Jonathan Cape and won a Betty Trask Award. She trained initially as a performance artist impersonating drag queens or Julie Andrews. She came to writing fiction in her early thirties after almost drowning (metaphorically) in her job as an Air Hostess.
She lives in Penge, South London and is writing her second novel whilst still performing at her frequent night in Soho called Moona.
Kate North’s debut novel, Eva Shell, is told in a variety of media including poetry, text messages, diary entries and letters. (Cinnamon Press, 2008). Her poetry is widely anthologised and can be read in Pterodactyl's Wing (Parthian, 2003). She was poetry editor for Aesthetica Magazine (2006/7) and currently edits for iota poetry magazine. She writes reviews, articles and interviews for a variety of magazines and journals.
Kelly Smith's role as publisher at Bywater Books is the culmination of many years in the book business and a genuine passion for books. In 1992, she co-founded A Woman's Prerogative, an independent bookstore in Detroit. Seeking fresh challenges in a world she knew well, Kelly spent a year learning the ropes at a lesbian publishing house before establishing her first publishing venture where among other successes she published nine Lambda Literary Award nominated books. With Bywater Books, Kelly's commitment to excellence continues.
Kim Baldwin has published six novels with Bold Strokes Books. Her latest release is the romantic intrigue Lethal Affairs, co-authored with Xenia Alexiou, the first book in the Elite Operatives Series. The second book in the series, Thief of Always, will be released in February. She is currently working on an Alaska-based romance entitled Breaking the Ice, due out in August 2009. She lives in Michigan.
Marcia Finical won the first annual Bywater Prize for Fiction for her first novel, Last Chance at the Lost And Found. Born and raised in Seattle, she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she lives with her dog and two cats. A frustrated gardener, Marcia does her best to keep her xeric plants alive.
Manda Scott was a veterinary surgeon until her debut lesbian crime thriller, 'Hen's Teeth' was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Two more Kellen Stewart thrillers and an Edgar-nominated stand-alone followed before she began the 6-year, 4-book 'Boudica: Dreaming' series which offered a fresh perspective on the life, sexuality and spirituality of Britain before and during the Roman invasion. Her most recent book, 'The Crystal Skull' delved into the Mayan prophecies that the world will end as a result of humanity's actions on 21st December 2012 and she's working on a Roman spy thriller which unearths the historical Christ, and exposes the role of one Saulos the Herodian - known to us as St Paul - in starting the great fire of Rome. When not writing or researching, she teaches shamanic dreaming courses and tries to find ways in which humanity can step beyond the planet's destruction. She lives in south Shropshire with her partner, a dog or two and the obligatory cat.
Mojisola Adebayo is a performer, writer, director and teacher. Over the past 17 years she has had the pleasure of working in theatre all over the world. She has performed in over forty productions, mainly focusing on new writing, devising and adaptations, with various companies including The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Abbey Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Southwark Playhouse, Sherman Cymru and Black Mime Theatre / Nottingham Playhouse. She has also appeared in numerous television and radio productions for the BBC, Channel 4 and Thames and played Nina Udenze in RTE’s Fair City. All of Mojisola’s work is concerned with power, identity and change. She is a specialist in Theatre for Social Change particularly in areas of conflict and crisis such as the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Syria and and post Tsunami affected Sri Lanka. Mojisola is one of the founders of Vidya, a slum dweller’s theatre company in Ahmedabad, India. Her new book Theatre for Development: a Handbook with John Martin of Pan and Manisha Mehta, based on the work of Vidya, will be published in 2008. She has directed over 30 productions for various companies, and devised and written as many scripts.
Naomi Young is the editor of Velvet, the magazine she started in 2004, aimed mainly, but not exclusively at the more mature, and non-scene lesbian community. She has always wanted to be a writer (from age 4), and has had poetry published in various anthologies, including: Entertaining Angels, Canterbury Press, 2005; and Courage to Love: An Anthology of Inclusive Worship Material, Darton Longman and Todd, 2002 - winner of the LAMBDA Literary Award 2003. Her first novel, If It Falls, was published by Discovered Authors in June 2008. It is set in Guatemala, where Young lived for two years towards the end of the civil war, and was completed as part of the online MA Creative Writing Programme at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Radclyffe is a retired surgeon and full time award-winning author-publisher with over thirty lesbian novels and anthologies in print. Five of her works have been Lambda Literary finalists including the Lambda Literary winners Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments ed. with Stacia Seaman and Distant Shores, Silent Thunder. She is the editor of Best Lesbian Romance 2009 (Cleis Press) and has selections in multiple anthologies including Best Lesbian Erotica 2006, 7, 8, and 9; After Midnight; Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists; First-Timers; Ultimate Undies: Erotic Stories About Lingerie and Underwear; Hide and Seek; A is for Amour; H is for Hardcore; L is for Leather; and Rubber Sex. She is the recipient of the 2003 and 2004 Alice B. Readers' award for her body of work and is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBT publishing companies. Her October 2008 release is the romance NIght Call and her forthcoming 2009 works include Radical Encounters (an all-Radclyffe erotica anthology), Justice for All, Secrets in the Stone, and Returning Tides.
Sarah Broughton's first novel Other Useful Numbers is, according to DIVA, “a witty and worrying debut.” Set in a northern English city in the 1980’s, it explores a lost community of women floundering in the murky waters of economic depression, infidelity and feminist politics. Sarah has also researched and written a number of television documentaries on iconic women singers including Gracie Fields, Josephine Baker, Piaf and Kathleen Ferrier.
Sophia Blackwell is a performance poet whose mission in life is to make poetry vital, interesting and accessible. A slam champion, cabaret tart and unrepentantly camp femmegirl, she's supported some of the biggest names in spoken word and appears fresh from feature slots at Wychwood, Glastonbury and the Big Chill.
Stacia Seaman is an editor who has worked with New York Times and USA Today best-selling authors. She has edited numerous award-winning titles, and with co-editor Radclyffe has won a Lammy for Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments, an Independent Publishers Awards silver medal and a Golden Crown Literary Award for Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions, and an Independent Publishers Awards gold medal and a Golden Crown Literary Award for Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games. Stacia edits everything from textbooks to popular nonfiction to mysteries and romance novels.
Stella Duffy has written eleven novels, five of them in the Saz Martin
series published by Serpent's Tail, and six literary novels published by Sceptre and Virago. State of Happiness and The Room of Lost things were both longlisted for the Orange Prize, and she has adapted State of Happiness for film. She written eight stage plays, over thirty short stories, and co-edited the anthology Tart Noir from which her story Martha Grace won the CWA Short Story Dagger Award. She is also an actor and director, and this year presented the TV documentary on the 100th
anniversary of Mills and Boon for BBC4.
Therese (Reese) Szymanski is an award-winning playwright who has been short-listed for a few Lammies, a few Goldies and a Spectrum; made the Publishing Triangle’s list of Notable Lesbian Books in 2004; and was chosen for an Alice B. Reader’s Appreciation Award for 2008. She’s got eight Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers and one Shawn Donnelly book out, as well as five erotic anthologies she edited. She’s had novellas in all four of the New Exploits books and had a few dozen short stories and essays appear in a wide variety of books. Her books can be found at www.bellabooks.com and Amazon.
Dr Valerie Mason-John Aka Queenie author of 6 books has collaborated with Pratibha Parmar on bringing her award winning novel to screen. She is currently working on her second novel Perfect Families, and wanting to write her next self help book on
What We Eat. Dr Valerie Mason-John is the winner of the MIND Book of the year Award 2006, Borrowed Body second edition published by BAAF who have changed title to THE BANANA KID. www.valeriemason-john.co.uk
Val McDermid is the creator of Lindsay Gordon, the first British lesbian detective. Her debut novel, Report for Murder, was published in 1987. An international bestseller, her subsequent 20 novels have won many major awards, including the Gold Dagger, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Portico Prize for Fiction. They have been translated into 37 languages and adapted for the award-winning TV series Wire In The Blood. A former journalist, she is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4. She is also Editorial Director of Bloody Brits Press. She lives in the north of England with her wife and son.
VG Lee has published three novels; The Comedienne, The Woman in Beige and Diary of a Provincial Lesbian. her collection of short stories, As You Step Outside, will be published in October 2008.
Xenia Alexiou is Greek and lives in Europe. Her love of traveling has inspired endless stories,and she is happy for the opportunity to see some of those in print. Lethal Affairs, her first novel in the Elite Operatives Series, was released in July by Bold Strokes Books. Her second novel, Thief of Always, is due for release in February 2009. She is currently at work on the third book in the series, Missing Lynx.
High Octane has been performing with Killpussy for the last 5 years since she came to London. Having met Killpussy at drama school in New Zealand she decided to come to work with Killpussy and has never looked back. High Octane is widely trained in New Zealand and loves the drag superstar she has become. She brings her own unique style to KP Production Enterprises. High Octane has performed all over London with Killpussy in the last few years.
She is Killpussy's right hand but more than that her great friend/partner in crime and business partner. High Octane has a presence on stage you can not ignore...or she'll fire up on you. So get ready for High Octane because here she comes at the speed of sound. Both High Octane and Killpussy are looking forwrad to meeting all of you and getting down to some true drag diva fun.
Performer who became Producer, Ingo have been running Wotever World events since 2003. She is hosting regular nights in London, Stockholm and Brighton as well as one off events. All with the aim of entertainment, culture and political message. In York she is hosting the Queerlesque workshop with Killpussy and High Octane and hope that there will be plenty of talent who wants to be part at this fun filled event. www.woteverworld.com
Sadie Lee moved from York to the Big Smoke in 1981. Since then she’s become a painter by day and Disco Jockey by night, hosting legendary nitespot Lower the Tone (a club for people who hate clubs) for the past six-and-a-bit years.
At YLAF she promises a little something for everybody with a Party-tastic
Mixed-Up Mish-Mash of the Topp-est Popp-est Tunes in the World. Ever.
