Chrissie Gittins

CHRISSIE GITTINS was born in Lancashire and lives in Forest Hill. Her first short story collection is Family Connections (Salt, 2007). Her second collection Between Here and Knitwear will be published by Unthank Books in 2015. Chrissie’s first poetry collection is Armature (Arc, 2003) and her second is I’ll Dress One Night As You (Salt, 2009). In 2013 Paekakariki Press published her third pamphlet collection Professor Heger’s Daughter in traditional letterpress with 7 original wood engravings. Her radio plays include Poles Apart, Starved for Love, Life Assurance and Dinner in the Iguanodon. Her three children’s poetry collections are all Choices for the Poetry Book Society’s Children’s Poetry Bookshelf and two were shortlisted for the CLPE Poetry Award; she has made an hour’s recording of her children’s poems for the Poetry Archive. Bloomsbury published her new and collected children’s poems Stars in Jars in 2014. Chrissie has received two Arts Council Writers’ Awards, a Hawthornden Fellowship, and awards from the Author’s Foundation and the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust; she is included in the British Council directory of UK and Commonwealth writers.

www.chrissiegittins.co.uk

Credentials

Chrissie Gittins in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

At school in Bury, Lancashire.

What do you love about short stories?

I love the economy of short stories, and their intensity.

Do you write in other forms?

Poetry, poetry for children, radio drama.

What distracts you from writing?

Admin. and errands.

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

Gardening, cooking, walking, landscapes, colour.

What is your favourite book?

The Empty Family, Colm Toibin.

Who are your favourite writers?

Alan Bennett, Carys Davies and Ali Smith.

Where is your dream location?

Suffolk.

What one item would you put into Room 101?

Canned laughter.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Read, keep a notebook, and allow yourself to dream.