Phil Bowen was born in Liverpool in 1949 where he taught Drama until 1979. He has worked as a full-time writer, performer and teacher since 1994. Work from his first full collection 'Variety's Hammer' was selected for The Forward Anthology of 1998. His biography of the Mersey Poets 'A Gallery to Play to' has recently been updated and republished by Liverpool University Press and he written four plays for the stage. Chris Emery is a director of Salt. He has published three collections of poetry, a writer's guide, an anthology of art and poems, and edited editions of Emily Bronte, Keats and Rossetti. His work has been widely published in magazines and anthologised, most recently in Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe). He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing, edited by David Morley and Philip Neilsen. He lives in Cromer, North Norfolk, with his wife and children.