Vivien Jones

Her first poetry collection - About Time, Too - was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in September 2010. In that year she also won the Poetry London Prize. She has twice performed as a Poetry Double with Jacob Polley and Jen Hadfield and devises collaborative readings with music in performance at Book and Arts Festivals in Scotland and the north of England. She has completed a second short fiction collection on a theme of women amongst warriors - White Poppies (2012) - with the aid of a Creative Scotland Writer’s Bursary and has adapted two of the stories for theatre performance in 2013. In February 2014 her first e-book - 'Malta Child' - was published - memoirs of four childhood years in Malta in the late 1950s. Her second poetry collection - 'Short of Breath' - was published in November 2014 by Cultured Llama Publishing.

www.vivienjones.info
www.southlight.ukwriters.net

Credentials

Vivien Jones in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

1960 in Plymstock, Devon.

What do you love about short stories?

Good ones are gems and require very exact writing disciplines.

Do you write in other forms?

Poetry and drama.

What distracts you from writing?

Family - especially my husband - my kids are grown.

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

Early music performance (viols and recorders) & whole food cooking.

What is your favourite book?

Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Who are your favourite writers?

Philip Pullman, Alice Walker and Iain Banks.

Where is your dream location?

Right here.

What one item would you put into Room 101?

Intolerance, wherever it occurs.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Learn to love the act of re-drafting - be rigorous, especially with short stories, in cutting right down to essentials.