2022 Writing Mentorship Award Finalists

I was born in 1947, the eldest child of a much-decorated Regular soldier and an Italian partisan who met at the liberation of the walled city of Urbino in the Appenine foothills. They brought me up speaking only Italian until I went to school. I was educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar

Alicia Evans was born and raised in the stunning desert that makes up most of New Mexico, USA. As a child her mother had to bribe her to read until she finally found her love of books at the age of ten. With every new book or series devoured, her love of reading evolved into a love of writing. She

I was born in Berlin, and grew up in the Army, moving from place to place. All of the work I've done in my adult life has been in the worlds of media/entertainment/storytelling. I started in the office of the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre in Islington in the early 1980s’, leaving to move to a small

I’m a CGI filmmaker by trade and throughout my career have helped visualise stories from Hollywood blockbusters like The Golden Compass to Alex Garland’s Annihilation. INTO THE LIGHT was inspired by a true life event of a woman, who stopped a man killing a young girl in public, whilst others passed

I am a UK-based scientist who spends my spare time writing speculative and historical fiction, often focusing on underrepresented voices in science and mythology. In 2021 I took the leap and started submitting work. Since then, I've won Globe Soup's short story competition and have other work

Kylie A Hough lives on Yugambeh land where she is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Writing at Macquarie University. In 2015 Kylie received the Lucy Elizabeth Craigie Award, the Richard B Smith Memorial Prize, and the Australian Federation of Graduate Women Inc. (AFGW) NSW (Armidale) UNE

Tony Blankenship is a chef, spiritual seeker, and punk rocker. All the great insights in his book Self-Help Sucks, come from his own challenge of confronting and losing in his own struggle with addictive behavior. Using the principles and actions of the twelve-step program, Tony lays out his

Diane Hopkins is a nonfiction book writing coach for creative and ambitious women who have transformational stories and expertise to share. She has also helped her clients create powerful speeches as invited keynotes speakers at big events including business conferences and United Nations events

Sarah was born and raised in a hippie surfer town in California before running away to New Orleans to read literature with vampires. After a hurricane and a degree, she found herself wandering around Los Angeles, dreaming of becoming a novelist in a script writer world. The heat was a tad too much

Jacquelyn de León was born in California but her family soon left the sunshine and beaches for the mountains of Washington state. Never living in one place for more than five years, Jacquelyn grew up with a traveler's heart and a belief that with new locations come new adventures. Her own adventures

Mirjam Dikken was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her interests not only landed her jobs as a chemical engineer, recruiter, and HR manager, but also brought her to travel and work around the world and live in India for 3.5 years. She now wanders around in the darker places of her imagination to

Diane Hopkins is a nonfiction book writing coach for creative and ambitious women who have transformational stories and expertise to share. She has also helped her clients create powerful speeches as invited keynotes speakers at big events including business conferences and United Nations events

Sarah Nias grew up overseas and worked in translation before moving into a career in print production. Returning to education as a mature student, she studied for an MA in English which inspired her to take up her own writing. After participating in several online creative writing courses she was

Katherine Black was born and raised in Texas but has spent most of her life in England. Her background is in art history. She spent years working for arts charities before leaving it all behind for the glamourous life of a stay-at-home mum. Now that the children are getting older, she's pursuing her

Alice Deby is a debut author who loves retro rom-coms and writing all night. A former teacher and magazine editor, she now writes full-time, with an ambition to deliver many books for many readers. In 2021, she was Highly Commended in the Page Turner Awards, and a prize winner in the Romance Writers

Unexpected journeys are the best kind. In 2018, my husband and I packed up and moved from the US to Spain. We live on a farm bordering the famed Camino De Santiago in Lugo, (Galicia) Spain, where I spend my days writing, painting, and counting pilgrims walking past the gate. Throughout my life, I

Mina Rose lives in the Seattle area. She loves self-care, astrology, tarot, yoga, cats, coffee, video games, and outer space (although she's never been). On a typical day you can find her burning incense and dancing in the kitchen. On a non-typical day you can find her sipping margaritas next to a

Claudia Bretag is an editor, teacher, retail assistant and aspiring author from Sydney, Australia. She is an active member of both Writing NSW and IPEd. Claudia is at her best in a cafe with a cup of coffee while her fingers tinker away at a keyboard to uncover a new chapter each day.

Orphaned at sixteen, I wasn't educated in the traditional sense, but I have always been a writer. I am dedicated to shining a light on experiences which have not always made it into print. I tell these with love, with brutal honesty and an eye for detail which was honed as a girl trying to make

I’m currently working as a lawyer in London, I have recently qualified as an associate in my firm’s litigation team and was given a qualification break in which I thought I would give this idea a real attempt. I am originally from the North-East and came to writing over the past few years, having

Victoria is a writer of sapphic thrillers and women's fiction, based in Cambridge, UK. Her novel, 'Darling Girl', won the 2022 'I Am In Print' thriller competition and a place on the Curtis Brown Creative Advanced Crime and Thriller course. She has had a number of flash fiction pieces published

I'm an unpublished, aspiring author, with a love for locked room mysteries and boundless imagination. My first full length novel was my first murder mystery story, written for the toughest critics of all - the women of my immediate family - as a Christmas present, thus answering the question; 'what

Britt Marie Box is a published non-fiction author and magazine columnist, a new fiction author and is currently studying for a BA(hons) degree in Creative Writing and English Literature.

This is my first foray into the world of creative writing and my dream is to finish this work and have it published. I have a Political Science degree from Carleton University, in Ottawa, but have always aspired to a career as a writer of fiction. While this novel is fictional, it is my real

Playwright, poet, prose writer, as well as former gravedigger, hotline psychic (no really), line cook, chef, waiter and a few other things in between, Patrick de Moss lives in the St. John's area with his ghosts and good coffee, he is currently taking his MFA in Theatre and Creative Writing at UBC

I'm an author, former journalist, and writing fellow at Elizabethtown College. I'm the author of the novels Summer of '85 (TouchPoint Press, 2021) and Made To Break Your Heart (Open Books, 2017) and the story collection They Hover Over Us (Snake Nation Press, 2012). I've earned several awards for my

I became an English language teacher in 1998 and worked all over the world teaching English and training English teachers, and started writing to try to make the language come to life for my students. Before teaching, I worked as a waitress, a barmaid, a cook, and a book-keeper, sold oil paintings

Based in New York. I am a freelance outdoors writer/photographer that is currently working on my first novel. My work has been published in several national and regional magazines. When I am not writing I enjoy spending time with my children and being outside.

Based in Reno, Nevada and working on her first memoir, Helena Guglielmino is a creative writer with an obsession for the outdoors, focusing on stories that revolve around the adventure, sustainability, and culture. Featured in Outdoors Unlimited, Whitelines Magazine, edible Reno Tahoe, and more

In my life I've worked in factories, behind several bars and once ran a livery stable. I spent fifteen years as a software engineer in England, Ireland and Scotland – sorry Wales. In 2007 we moved to France. Now I make jam and sell it on the local markets, which is far less lucrative, but far more

I was born in Japan, but received all of my formal education in the U.S., graduating with an Applied Piano degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. I have spent most of my adult life in Tokyo, Japan--working as an interpreter for clients as diverse as condom manufacturers to diplomats to the

After gaining a Creative Writing (Novel) M.A. from Middlesex University in 2017, I completed my first novel manuscript in 2020. During 2022, I completed the Writing a Novel course from Faber Academy. I am currently working on my second novel. Previously, I have had over fifty articles and short

After several decades of avid reading and tentative writing, returning to education in my thirties was the turning point for me. Working in a university setting made all the difference, showing me that it's actually okay to have aspirations, take a deep breath and ditch the imposter syndrome... So

As his surname suggests, Jeffrey MacSporran hails from the wet, yet picturesque countryside which is Scotland. Jeffrey started writing as an amateur in 2017 as a way of passing the time whilst amusing his God-children or during long stints away from home. His first foray into writing competitions

Hello, I am excited to be entering the Page Turner Awards for the third year in a row. Originally from the West of Scotland, I am now settled in Edinburgh with my husband and two cats. As a self employed artist I work mainly from home. This gives me the opportunity to spend some time exploring the

Hello, I am excited to be entering the Page Turner Awards for the third year in a row. Originally from the West of Scotland, I am now settled in Edinburgh with my husband and two cats. As a self employed artist I work mainly from home. This gives me the opportunity to spend some time exploring the

I arrive at thriller writing differently than most. A world one never expects forced my children and me into California’s witness protection program where we, like the protagonist in my series, had to re-envision entirely new lives. The suspense, trauma, and human recovery that my characters portray

Masha Shukovich (she/they) is a writer, poet, storyteller, folklorist, teacher, independent scholar, and intuitive chef with ancestry and indigenous roots in the Balkans; the Mediterranean; and West, Central, and Northeast Asia (Siberia). She is a mother, demigirl, neurodivergent person, practical

Born in the UK, Christina wanted to travel as soon as she could to the places she read and dreamt about as a young child. Studying social anthropology and later public health, she travelled to sub-Saharan Africa. Here she lectured in medical anthropology and HIV/AIDS and worked for charities in some

I'm based in the UK and have been writing fiction for the last five years. I write psychological thrillers and am currently working on my second novel. My background is in Fine Art Film and Video I spent my early years working as an experimental filmmaker and as a lecturer in film making. My films

Nearly my whole working life has involved the written word: editing, teaching, researching, writing about, and promoting other people's words. Despite that, I only started writing fiction six years ago. I love to tell stories and mostly write uplit, and contemporary fiction. People's lives fascinate

Nearly my whole working life has involved the written word: editing, teaching, researching, writing about, and promoting other people's words. Despite that, I only started writing fiction six years ago. I love to tell stories and mostly write uplit, and contemporary fiction. People's lives fascinate

A Danish Viking who hates the cold, Theodora Scott lives in the Middle East where she can wear flip-flops in January. By day she works as a business writer for an IT corporation, by night she writes a blog about her two passions: music and pop culture. A lifelong hip hop fan and student of the craft

I have undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and a MA in Publishing. Story-telling has been embedded into my life from an early age, listening to my parents tell me stories about their lives prompted my interest in the lives of a diverse range

I grew up in my native England but in another life and for twenty years, I lived in California where I raised my three children. I began writing my first book, a memoir, in 2013 at the same time I started my blog. As time went on I prioritised my book, life's challenges adding years to the work of

Grace Swee is a Singaporean filmmaker and writer, based in New York City. Her first foray into storytelling was when, as a child, she would re-imagine herself in the stories she read of Enid Blyton’s fairy tales and magical lands. After a brief stint in copy-writing and editorial work, she packed

I started writing as a reviewer for the New Musical Express. My poetry has been published in US and UK magazines such as South Bank Poetry, The Interpreter's House, The Moth and Magma. A poem was selected for an anthology about fatherhood (ed.Aurelien Thomas). An excerpt from my first novel, Good

I find wonder in how our world works through studying the past to predict the patterns of our future. This might be due to my first passion and career as a weather forecaster, but it certainly does make life more interesting when I’m not hunched over my computer, madly typing to pin down my

I’m a lawyer who started writing about seven years ago. I'm currently working on Seven Sins, a locked room murder mystery set in a City law firm, inspired by my time as a corporate finance partner in two such firms. My elevator pitch is: Seven suspects. Seven sins. Which one is deadly? My previous

Novelist, poet and scriptwriter, Gail Aldwin has been writing for over a decade. Her first two coming-of-age novels were runners-up in the Dorchester Literary Festival Writing Prize 2020 and 2022. Gail was awarded a creative writing PhD in 2018 and still laughs whenever she’s called Doctor Gail. She