Sheila Bounford is a publishing industry expert with specialisms in independent presses and the book industry supply chain. She is experienced in mentoring award-winning independent publishers through phases of change and growth. Having become convinced that the key question facing publishers is not, “what’s the future of the book?” but rather, “what’s the future of reading?” In 2016 she took herself off for a challenging two-year “sabbatical” teaching English in an inner-city secondary school with Teach First, and is also studying for an MA in Transformational Leadership in Education. During her career in publishing she was partner in an editorial design and management firm, Executive Director of the Independent Publisher’s Guild (IPG), Head of Business Development at distributor NBN International, and interim MD at Inpress Limited, which provides sales and distribution services to independent poetry presses: the latter is where she first encountered and became an admirer of Nine Arches Press.
Sujana Crawford is a multilingual writer andresearcher, working in English, Nepali and Hindi. In her day job, Sujana works as aUXResearcher, working across the UK public sector helping research and design accessible IT services. Prior to this, Sujana worked in International Development, designing and implementing sustainability projects in places as diverse as Edinburgh in Scotland and J&K in India.
Jonathan Davidson has worked for over thirty years in arts management and literature development. He is joint-founder of the Birmingham Literature Festival, Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands and Director of Midland Creative Projects Limited. He is Joint Co-Chair of the National Association of Writers in Education. He is on advisory panels for publisher The Poetry Business, the LGBTQ+ writer training initiative Out on the Page and the Muslim Arts & Culture Festival and on the Birmingham & Midland Institute’s Governance and Road Map Committees.
Malachi McIntosh was born and lives in Birmingham, England, but spent his childhood in the United States. He is currently an Associate Professor of World Literatures in English at the University of Oxford and the Barbara Pym Tutorial Fellow in English at St. Hilda’s College. He writes fiction and criticism.
Di Slaney has worked in marketing and business consultancy for over 25 years, and now runs Manor Farm Charitable Trust and Candlestick Press. She was the winner of The Plough Poetry Prize 2022. Her poems have been on BBC Radio 4, widely published and highly commended in the Forward and Bridport Prizes. Her collections are Reward for Winter and Herd Queen (Valley Press).