MEREDITH ANDREA was brought up in Scotland and studied English at Bristol, Victoria B.C. and at  Oxford.  She now lives in South Birmingham.  In 2006 Flarestack published her first pamphlet collection, Grasshopper Inscriptions. She regularly contributes to poetry magazines, participates in, instigates and leads workshops, and reads her own poems in public. She is co-director of Flarestack Poets.

PHILIP GROSS's latest poetry collection, The Egg of Zero (Bloodaxe) and novel, The Storm Garden (Oxford University Press) both appeared in 2006. A new collection, The Water Table, is due from Bloodaxe late in 2009, as is a collaboration, I Spy Pinhole Eye, with photographer Simon Denison, to be published by Cinnamon Press. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University.

The first poet in residence at the Imperial War Museum and with BBC Radio 3, MARIO PETRUCCI is a major exponent of public art, authentic performance and hybrid forms, particularly science in poetry. Heavy Water, his Arvon-winning poem on Chernobyl, was made into an award-winning film by Seventh Art.  His most recent collections are Flowers of Sulphur (Enitharmon) and somewhere is january (Perdika).  An acclaimed creative writing tutor, Mario is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, ArvoN tutor and co-founder of Perdika Press. www.mariopetrucci.com

"Always focused, purposeful and stimulating."
- Julian Bell, Head of English

"Genuinely dynamic and approachable. A writer of stature, yet more than that he is a writer of the greatest generosity who can ignite the interest of others." - Martyn Crucefix

JACQUI ROWE's first collection, Blue, was published by Flarestack Publishing in 2007 and Apollinaire, a collection of her translations selected by Mario Petrucci, will be published by Perdika in 2009. Regarded in the West Midlands as a "poetry activist", Jacqui runs Poetry Bites, a regular event combining readings from leading poets with floor spots, as well as Making Poetry. She is also a trustee of the Poetry Society and, with Meredith Andrea, co-director of Flarestack Poets.  She will be leading workshops at Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2009. www.jacquirowe.com