Contributors
Founding Editor: Jane Bradley
Jane Bradley is the founder and editor of For Books’ Sake. When not obsessing over Patti Smith, watching roller derby, eating cheesecake or drinking too much tea, she can be found re-reading Jeffrey Eugenides‘ The Virgin Suicides or Donna Tartt‘s The Secret History and tying herself in knots whilst attempting to knit. When not editing For Books’ Sake, she also scribbles for an assortment of other print and online publications. Email her here.
Deputy Editor: Alex Herod
Alex Herod is a Manchester-based writer-performer-maker. When not plotting for For Books’ Sake or visiting ramshackle bookshops, she can be found wearing fake moustaches, cutting and pasting, spending whole days at the cinema and repeatedly telling everyone about that time she met Margaret Atwood. Other scribblings can be found online and in print, including Catch, Critical Writing Collective, the girls are and b&n magazine. Email her here.
Features Editor: Gina Kershaw
Gina Kershaw is a Wakefield-based writer with a degree in English Literature. After a childhood spent reading and talking at anyone who’d show a vague interest, it seemed only natural to fall into a career talking about books. When she’s not thinking about new features for the site, you can find her at gigs and festivals across the north pretending to be a lot cooler than she actually is, chowing down on some lemon cake, and arguing that there is no such thing as ‘proper’ fiction.
Interviews Editor: Cariad Martin
Cariad Martin grew up in Dover, Kent and was drawn to the city lights of London at the age of eighteen. She studied at Roehampton University, and has recently relocated back to Kent to work on her début novel, Cocktails for Smoking. She is a big admirer of American/Canadian writers like Douglas Coupland and Michael Chabon, and blogs about feminism, art and music. Cariad also has a short story and poetry blog that can be found here.
Kate Phillips
Kate Phillips spends most of her days sitting in darkened rooms as a producer of visual effects for movies. When she’s allowed out, she loves Scandinavian electropop, Bollywood films and all flavours of historical fiction. She reviews theatre infrequently and tweets inconsequentially.
Jess Haigh
Jess Haigh lives in Leeds, where she also runs The Travelling Suitcase Library, and specialises in promoting reading for pleasure. She loves Stella Gibbons, Shardlake and the Dewey Decimal System, and hates bigots and book snobs. You can tweet her @BookElfLeeds, or find her ranting away on the Leeds Book Club blog.
Kaite Welsh
Kaite Welsh is an author, reviewer, freelance journalist and copywriter. She studied English Literature at Edinburgh University, writing her undergraduate dissertation on female sexuality in science fiction, before moving to Sussex University to do an MA in Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change. It makes an excellent ice-breaker in job interviews.
Francesca Baker
Francesca Baker is incurably curious, reads everything she can and scribbles her thoughts as much as possible. She’d love to be a real life journalist and bona fide novelist, but to keep paying the bills, she’s sticking to doing it purely for the love. Possibly even more passionate about music than she is literature (can I say that?!), she runs a music magazine called It’s All Happening and promotes gigs in West London.
Tara Hanks
Tara Hanks is a married mum of two, living in Brighton. She is the author of two books, including The Mmm Girl, a novel about the life of Marilyn Monroe – as she might have told it herself. She also blogs about Marilyn at ES Updates. When not working on her third novel, Tara likes watching old movies and reading anything by Emily Brontё or Donna Tartt.
Beulah Maud Devaney
Beulah Maud Devaney grew up in a blue house in a fishing village outside Newcastle. Currently based in south-east London, she has just finished an MA in Publishing and is working for a scientific journal (she now knows what rotifers and behavioural mechanisms are). She loves Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Patti Smith, Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter and Lamebook.
Boomskilpaadjie
Boomskilpaadjie (that’s “ladybird” in Afrikaans) grew up under the blue skies of South Africa but recently swapped them for the less blue skies of the UK, where she has developed a penchant for red velvet cupcakes, all things James Bond and the structure of language. She honestly believes that most problems can be solved with a cup of tea and wants to change the world when she grows up. Until then, she can be found reading the latest Terry Pratchett novel and doodling modern fairytales in her journal.
Rebecca Smeaton
Rebecca Smeaton grew up in rural Bedfordshire, studied Fine Art at Canterbury and worked in book-selling, printing and publishing in London for a decade. A lifelong bookworm, she lives and works in Suffolk as graphic designer and illustrator, drawnandwatered, and runs a tiny book & vinyl outlet, acid&vellum. Rebecca loves the writers Jonathan Coe, Rose Tremain and Sarah Waters, and wishes she had grown up with Andy Stanton‘s Mr Gum.
Rubyyy Jones
Rubyyy Jones is a performer, writer and muse; specializing in love, lust and light. Originally from Paris, now living in London, with her heart set on NYC, Rubyyy is just working out her place in this funny sexy old world. Rubyyy is an Erotic Award nominated performer, working internationally in theatre, burlesque and voiceover with a passion for choreography and direction. Check out her award winning blog, connect with her on Twitter, or gaze at her Tumblr.
Amanda O’Boyle
Amanda O’Boyle works in book publishing, and previous jobs include ball-bearing distributor, pub bouncer and bookshop manager. She was born in Canada, but moved to East London on a whim, which she counts among her wisest and most irresponsible decisions. She reads fiction promiscuously, but remains faithful to long-term literary loves like fictional-best-friend Anne Shirley. Current book-related goals include reading all of Alice Munro’s short stories and one day finishing the last 500 pages of Gravity’s Rainbow.
Rachelle Thompson
Rachelle Thompson was bribed with books in exchange for good conduct as a child, leading to a life of literary obsession not necessarily resulting in good behaviour. She is a community manager for a digital agency, occasionally blogging about culinary delights and travelling highlights. Rachelle is originally from Australia, moving to London via Dublin, Edinburgh and New York. She is distracted by photography and independent film projects. At her happiest she is drinking black coffee and reading, instead of sleeping.
Laura Vickers
Laura Vickers is a freelance writer with a sideline in being a professional wine geek. When she isn’t having bubble baths with a glass of champers in one hand and a well-thumbed paperback in the other, or wishing she was in black-and-white movies, she’s plotting adventures – either for herself or the characters in her next novel. She blogs and tweets and when she grows up, she wants to be Barbara from The Good Life.
Sarah Kiddle
Sarah Kiddle is an English teacher who is passionate about punctuation and regularly bores students with her odes to the semi-colon. Her raving about books in class occasionally creates converts. When not procrastinating (reading), Sarah writes poetry, tentatively plans a novel, and lindy hops (badly). Sarah is planning to write her MAEd. dissertation on girls’ risk-taking in writing. She loves Margo Lanagan, Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter … (list continues ad nauseam).
