Guests for November 2009

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books
include several anthologies, including Staying Alive, Being Alive and Earth
Shattering, and two collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food
and In Person: 30 Poets; two poetry collections; and two novels, The End of
My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep
Who Changed the World. He lives in the Tarset Valley in Northumberland.

Sarah Roby's poem 'The Inland Waterways (IW)' won this year's Mslexia Poetry Competition, judged by Ruth Padel. She was also a runner-up in this competition last year, judged by Carol Ann Duffy - who said she admired Sarah's 'willingness to experiment and to play'.