Biographical note

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts officer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published by Liberties Press in June 2014, followed by a short story collection, Children's Children, in February 2016. Her stories have appeared in journals such as Storm Cellar, Banshee, Harper's Bazaar and The Honest Ulsterman. In 2014 she was a recipient of the Arts Council NI Artist's Career Enhancement Bursary. She was longlisted for the Sean O'Faolain short story prize in 2015 and won the Harper's Bazaar short story competition in 2016. She was shortlisted for a Sabotage Award for best short story collection 2015/16. Jan has had two plays performed by local theatre companies and has recently been commissioned to contribute a story for The Glass Shore, a forthcoming anthology of female prose writers from the North of Ireland to be published by New Island in October 2016. She has read widely in Ireland, the UK and America including appearances at Cork, Dublin, Belfast and Edinburgh Book festival. In 2014/15 she collaborated with local songwriter Hannah McPhillimy to produce an EP of songs based on her first novel. Hannah and Jan performed this material at music and literary festivals throughout Europe. Artist and illustrator Benjamin Phillips lives in St Leonards-on-Sea and shares a studio in Hastings with his partner and dog. Benjamin finds inspiration in human interaction, the humour and turmoil of everyday life and the joy of repetition. His debut graphic novel Peanutborough Cucumberland (a collaboration with Yeji Yun) was published by Log Press in 2012, and he has worked for clients such as The New York Times, Virgin Media, the Jerwood Gallery and Wichita Records.