Meet the Judges for the 2024/25 Poetry Competition

Deadline to enter: 21 March 2025
Enter Here: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/

Ange Wilson, (writes as A J Wilson), was born in rural North Wales and has lived there for most of her life, she wrote her first poem, at the age of 9 years but it wasn’t until she was 18 years old that she picked up her pen again. Then marriage, family and work left her pen dormant for a few decades, that was until the pandemic hit and in 2021, poetry found her once again.

Ange says that discovering Pen to Print during this time rekindled her love of the written word. Her poetry has since been published in a number of journals, including Write On! Magazine and her short stories have featured in two anthologies, currently Ange is compiling her work for a poetry collection.

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Neal Zetter began writing poetry when he was six years old and has since published 13 children’s poetry books. Since 1994 he has staged his fun poetry-writing workshops and performances in hundreds of schools and libraries in the UK and beyond, teaching 3-103-year-olds to create their own fantastic poetry. He has won the Silver Book Award, been acclaimed by the Reading Agency and Book Trust, had poems on London’s buses, in the Guardian newspaper and in many anthologies. He has performed his adult poems on radio, in the Royal Festival Hall, at a League 2 football match, festivals, weddings and funerals (really), countless top West End Comedy clubs and hosted his own club for ten years.

For all things Neal see cccpworkshops.co.uk

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Gloria Maloney is a poet and prose writer who finds her inspiration during walks through the countryside. She was honoured with first prize in the Pen to Print Poetry competition in 2021. Her work has been featured in various online and print magazines, including The London Garden Society, Autumn Voices, and Pen to Print.

Gloria’s poetry is also included in several anthologies, such as Green Ink Poetry (2024), eBook Lamb Spectator by Northumberland Library (2023), Out Of Excuses by Quaker Arts (2023), volume 7 of The Barn Owl Trust pamphlet (2023) and The London Wildlife Trust (2021).

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Meet the Judges for the 2024/25 Short Story Competition

Deadline to enter: 21 March 2025
Enter Here: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/

In her heart-rending debut, Sweethearts of Ilford Lane, author Farzana Hakim, set out to write a story her readers could relate to. Her second novel, The Silence Of A Deep River, a thought-provoking family saga based on the Partition of India and Pakistan, did the same.

As an oral historian, collecting stories from people connected to Newham for her research, rekindled her ambition to have more voices and stories from the South Asian diaspora heard. Currently, Farzana is editor of ‘Thursday Connectors’ at Write On! Magazine. She’s the host/founder of the ‘Hear My Voice,’ creative writing workshops and she’s working with ‘Inspiring Futures,’ to de-colonise the literacy curriculum in Primary Schools.

You can connect with Farzana on X: @farzanahakim

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Michael Flavin is a novelist, short story writer and academic. His published books include One Small Step and The Voice Hearer.

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Stewart Ross was born in Buckinghamshire and educated in Oxford, Berkhamsted, Exeter, Bristol, and Orlando, Florida. He taught at a variety of institutions in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, the USA, and Britain before becoming a full-time writer in 1989.

With over 350 published titles to his credit, he is now one of Britain’s most popular and versatile authors. His output includes prize-winning books for younger readers, short stories (including 25 new Sherlock Holmes stories) and novels, plays, three librettos, a musical, and many widely acclaimed works on history, including international bestsellers on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Middle East Since 1945. Several of his history books are illustrated with his own photographs.

Stewart has lectured at universities in France and the UK, given talks, run workshops, and still visits schools every now and again. He is an occasional journalist and broadcaster. His brother is the celebrated auctioneer Charlie Ross, whose autobiography Stewart wrote in 2024.

In his spare time, Stewart enjoys travel, restaurants, sport, theatre, photography, art and music. He lives near Canterbury with his wife Lucy, and – occasionally – his four children and four grandchildren. Each morning, he commutes 10 metres to work in a large hut in the garden.

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Meet the Judges for the 2024/25 Audio Play Competition

Deadline to enter: 21 March 2025
Enter here: https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/

Chris Gregory founded, Alternative Stories, an independent spoken-word production company making podcasts and radio programmes for a variety of clients. Twice representing the UK at the International Radio Drama Festival and nominated for numerous Audio Verse awards, Alternative Stories productions have been heard on BBC radio, on podcasts and on radio stations in North America and Australia.

Specialising in literary productions, Chris has interviewed and worked with many of the UK’s leading writers and poets and Alternative Stories actors have appeared in films and television, in BBC radio productions and on stages in the West End and throughout the UK.

Visit Alternative Stories website: alternativestories.com

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Lucy Kaufman studied Film & Literature at the University of Warwick. An award-winning playwright and author, 37 of her plays have been performed professionally around UK and Australia, most notably Vintage, Till the Boys Come Home and Eleanor Marx. Her audio drama The Victoria Files was recently shortlisted by the BBC; her novel Pretty Bubbles was placed in The Book Challenge and her short story Pianoforte won a national competition and is published in an anthology Toast.

Lucy taught Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and Canterbury Christ Church University. She is currently working on several writing projects.

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Emily Inkpen is a science-fiction novelist and audio dramatist. She is the writer and co-director of the globally successful audio drama, The Dex Legacy, the second season of which recently won the BSFA Award for Best Audio Fiction. The spin-off series, Wasteland – A Dex Legacy story, is currently in release. In addition to her own projects, she is acting Social Media Officer for the British Science Fiction Association.

With a background in medical writing and copywriting for healthtech, the scientific influences that feed into Emily’s work tend to be on the biological side. She is inspired by the progress being made in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research that leads to truly astonishing discoveries. Most of all, she is aware that what is possible today is only ever groundwork for what will be possible in a year, and every week brings new discoveries that have a real impact on people’s lives.

You can find more information about The Dex Legacy at http://www.thedexlegacy.com

You can find out more about Emily’s other writing projects at http://www.emilyinkpen.com And you can follow Emily on Twitter, BlueSky, Instagram, Threads @emilyinkpen

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There’s still time to enter all our competitions so don’t delay and submit your stories today! https://pentoprint.org/get-involved/competitions/