Anne Caldwell

Anne grew up in the north-west of England and now lives in West Yorkshire. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies - Poet's Cheshire (Headland) and The Nerve (Virago) and in three collections by Cinnamon Press. She has completed an MA in writing poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and now teaches creative writing at Bolton University and for the OU. She performs all over the UK, and her first full length book, Talking with the Dead, was published by Cinnamon Press in 2011. The National Association for Writers in Education employs Anne to run their professional development programme for writers. Anne’s work is widely published in magazines. Her first collection has been described by Alison Brackenbury:
‘Anne Caldwell's poems deal passionately with grief and birth, love - and lobsters. They are intensely alive, flighty as young animals; powerful and varied as the sea.’

Last year she produced a handmade artists’ book with designer Jack Wright. The writing explored two sequences of poems that use a family archive of photographs as starting points. They are based on the cities of Aberdeen and Berlin and link together a process of ekphrasis, sensory explorations of the current cityscapes and her own family history. Anne has been showcased this work at an Arts Festival in Berlin in the summer of 2013.

Credentials

Anne Caldwell in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

Congleton, United Kingdom

What do you love about short stories?

I love short stories because they are snapshots on lives, and you can read a whole story in one sitting

Do you write in other forms?

Poems

What distracts you from writing?

Teaching and my homw like

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

walking and swimming

What is your favourite book?

I love the work of Alice Munro and Raymond Carver

Who are your favourite writers?

I am still a big fan of Ted Hughes and The Brontes , Currently I am reading Sophie Calle and Also John Burnside, Waking Up in Toytown

Where is your dream location?

Banff in Canada

What one item would you put into Room 101?

A pet hate is being tailgated on the motorway

Do you have any advice for new writers?

My advice would be to practise your craft, little and often