RIPTIDE: NEW WRITING FROM THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS

Sharon Blackie & David Knowles, eds.

Nicky Guthrie was born in Edinburgh, brought up in Glasgow and has lived in the Highlands for the last twenty years. She has an MA in English Language and Literature and, more recently, achieved a distinction in the Open University Level Two Creative Writing Course. Many years ago she won a poetry competition and a short story competition; she has since had a number of pieces published in various magazines. Inspired by her time working at the Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre, she now hopes to devote more time to her writing.

Mandy Haggith first studied Philosophy and Mathematics and then Artificial Intelligence and spent years struggling to write elegant computer programs that could help to save the planet. A decade ago she left academia to pursue a life of writing and revolution, and has since travelled all over the world researching forests and the people dependent on them and campaigning for their protection. A pamphlet of her poetry, letting light in, was published in 2005 and her first full collection, Castings, was published by Two Ravens Press in 2007. Her first novel, The Last Bear, was published by Two Ravens Press in March 2008. Mandy lives on a woodland croft in Assynt.

Morag Henderson grew up in Culloden. She left the Highlands when she was seventeen and went on to live in a variety of different places, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Galashiels, France and Nova Scotia, Canada. Eventually she came home to Inverness, where she currently lives and works. She has had stories and articles published both in Canada and Scotland, most recently in the magazines 'The Leopard' and 'Random Acts of Writing.'

Elyse Jamieson is 14 years old and lives in the South Mainland of Shetland. She has previously been Shetland Young Writer of the Year for her age group, and more recently was 'highly commended' in the Royal Commonwealth Society Essay competition. She hopes to become a journalist in the future.

Laureen Johnson is from Shetland. She has written plays, poems and short stories, a local history book and a short novel, Shetland Black (2002). Her work appears in the New Shetlander magazine, and has also appeared in various other Scottish publications. A selection of her dialect poems is soon to be published by Hansel Co-operative Press.

David Knowles studied philosophy and physics at Oxford. He spent 25 years as a fast-jet (Tornado) pilot in the RAF, and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for actions during the opening phases of the recent Gulf War. He recently left to found Two Ravens Press with his wife, Sharon Blackie. His first collection of poetry, Meeting the Jet Man, was published by Two Ravens Press in 2008.

Anne Macleod lives on the Black Isle and works as a dermatologist. Published work includes two volumes of poetry and two novels – The Dark Ship (Neil Wilson Publishing) and The Blue Moon Book (Luath). She is currently working on her third novel.

Kevin MacNeil is a novelist, poet and playwright from Lewis. His books include Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides (Canongate) and The Stornoway Way (Penguin). He has held writing residencies in Scotland, Sweden and Bavaria.

John McGill was born in Glasgow and now lives in Orkney. He has taught English all over the place and has published a collection of short stories, That Rubens Guy, and a novel, Giraffes. His stories have featured in a number of anthologies and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland. His new novel, The Most Glorified Strip of Bunting, will be published by Two Ravens Press in November 2007.