Anne Ryland lives in the Borders. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Autumnologist, was published by Arrowhead Press in Spring 2006 and was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis (Forward) First Collection Prize 2006. She was then awarded a Northern Promise Award. Her poems have appeared in a range of magazines including Acumen, London Magazine, Staple, Scintilla, The Interpreter's House, Northwords, and The Red Wheelbarrow, as well as in anthologies such as Entering the Tapestry (Enitharmon, 2003) and Four Caves of the Heart (Second Light, 2004).

Anne writes: I've been fascinated by words and writing ever since I can remember. At the age of six I was secretly pleased when the teacher who complained I had "a tongue like a snake" also predicted that one day she'd be reading my book in her wheelchair. Many of my poems are inspired by an image or by a story which almost demands to be recreated as a poem. Certain themes keep recurring: letters, silence, water, the Northumbrian coastline, blue and grey, stitches, bones, stones....

Rhoda Michael was born in Beauly, got away, but is now back again. She lived for many years in Aberdeen and is nostalgic for the bright lights of Pittodrie on a winter afternoon. She won the 17th Poetry Life Prize 2001, and her poetry pamphlet In Long Connected Threads was published in 2002. She is currently editor of Northwords Now.

Haworth Hodgkinson is a poet and musician, occasionally performing poetry and music simultaneously when working with the Blue Salt Collective.

As a poet, he has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, and in 2007 his small collection A Weakness for Mermaids was published by Koo Press.

As a musician he has composed, performed and improvised for many theatrical projects, and has recently been playing with Susanne Olbrich's Strange Little Orchestra in Forres and Findhorn.

See www.haworthhodgkinson.co.uk for more.

Olivia McMahon writes novels, poems and quirky books about language. Her poems have appeared in a range of magazines including Stand, Mslexia, Northwords Now and Pushing Out the Boat. Buy her collection Domestic Verses at Books and Beans during the month of May and you might find a diamond among its pages — a real one, of quality.

Judith Taylor comes from Perthshire and now lives and works in Aberdeen, where she is a member of Lemon Tree Writers. She writes poetry in English and sometimes Scots, and her first chapbook collection, Earthlight, was published in 2006 by Koo Press. She was Poet Number 91 in the StAnza 100 Poets Gathering in St Andrews in March 2007.

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