Board
Board of Writing West Midlands
Lorraine Francis – Lorraine Francis runs Weave Marketing, a business development and marketing consultancy, having been Executive Director of Birmingham Forward where she developed an extensive network of senior level contacts across the city. In addition, Lorraine is on the Board of the Birmingham Book Festival, an Advisory Group member for Birmingham Common Purpose and board observer of Creative Republic, a body established to promote the region’s creative and cultural sector. Until recently she was an active regional Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) and has held a range of voluntary roles including regional director for the Professional Marketing Forum and former member of the Chairman’s Circle at Symphony Hall. Lorraine has also been a member of the advisory group at Fairbridge West Midlands, a Trustee of Brewery Arts in Cirencester and was a 2009 and 1996 Matrix programme graduate of Common Purpose Birmingham. www.weavemarketing.co.uk
Dr Danielle Fuller – Danielle Fuller is an academic who teaches in the Department of American & Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham. Inspired in part by her own experiences of working in the UK publishing industry, she has long-term research interests in literary-cultural production both here in the UK and in North America. She is the author of various articles on these topics, as well as a prize-winning academic monograph, ‘Writing the Everyday: Atlantic Canadian Women’s Textual Communities’ (published in Canada by McGill-Queen’s University Press). Most recently, she has been leading a collaborative research project that investigates communities of readers and large-scale reading events in the UK, USA and Canada. She is on the Board of the Birmingham Book Festival.
Roz Goddard – Roz Goddard is a poet and writer. Her first full collection of poetry, How to Dismantle a Hotel Room, was published in 2006, details of her work can be found at: www.rozgoddard.com. Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4. During 2003-4 she was appointed Birmingham’s poet laureate and gives readings of her work across the country. She runs workshops and courses, including for the Arvon Foundation and mentors individual writers. She is currently working as a lead Creative Agent in the Black Country working to facilitate creative programmes for school age children.
Philip Monks – Philip Monks is a Birmingham-based playwright and poet. Born in Lancashire, he studied English at Oxford University and worked in London before moving to Birmingham, where he has lived for over 25 years. Previously working in television, he became a freelance writer in 1991. Philip has written many plays for young people, families and children, several of which have toured nationally, and is a partner of Hoopla Productions, making music-theatre for and with young people. He has written two poetry pamphlets, appears regularly in poetry magazines and performs in a wide range of settings. He has edited 3 anthologies of young people’s writing and the poetry booklets Old Story New Story and Pick n Mix. Philip has many years experience of promoting writer development and has run creative writing projects in primary & secondary schools, 6th Form colleges, at Birmingham and City universities, with families, community groups, youth theatres, Pupil Referral Units, young carers, adult writing groups, elderly groups, with teachers and at festivals. He has worked for, among others: Birmingham Rep, Midlands Arts Centre, New Art Gallery Walsall, Telford Culture Zone, Warwickshire Libraries, Poetry On Loan, Black Country Creative Partnerships, Birmingham Creative Partnerships (now Bright Space), Touring Arts Projects, Craftspace Touring and Theatre Works, as well as Write On. He co-created and delivers Word Lab, using game structure to engage secondary students in GCSE English Language. Philip is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), Action for Children’s Arts (ACA) and Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). He is on the editorial panel of Tindal Street Press and secretary of the regional committee of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.
Amy Seton – Amy Seton is Campaign Manager at Eversheds, Birmingham. [full details to be supplied shortly]
Tim Thackaberry - Tim Thackaberry is a chartered accountant at RSM Tenon, specialising in forensic accountancy. Prior to this he studied English Literature at Exeter University and had a brief career as a bookseller. Tim has maintained a life long passion for reading and literature.