Sandra Tappenden has spent much of this year teaching young EFL students, and accompanying them to places such as the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, where she has grown weary of Kevin the shark due to his lack of repartee. Bloodaxe are including some of her poems from Speed (Salt) in a forthcoming anthology edited by Roddy Lumsden, entitled Identity Parade - New British and Irish Poets.

Anamaria Crowe Serrano's Femispheres was published in 2008 by Shearsman.

İlhan Berk, one of Turkey's most influential and innovative poets, was born in 1918 in the Aegean city of Manisa. He was the award-winning author of more than two dozen books of poetry, as well as volumes of critical and biographical prose. He was also an acclaimed visual artist. Berk lived for many years in the town of Bodrum where he died on 28 August, 2008. His books in English, translated by George Messo, are: A Leaf about to Fall: Selected Poems (Salt, 2006), Madrigals (Shearsman, 2008) and The Book of Things (Salt, 2009). 

George Messo is a poet, translator, and editor. His poetry includes From the Pine Observatory (2000), Entrances (2006), and Hearing Still (2009). He has written two books in Turkish: Aradaki Ses (The In-between Voice, 2005) and Avrupa'nın Küçük Tanrıları (The Little Gods of Europe, 2007). His many translations include İkinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant-Garde (Shearsman, 2009), and Birhan Keskin's & Silk & Love & Flame: Selected Poems (forthcoming, 2010). He is the former editor of Near East Review.

Janet Sutherland's second collection Hangman's Acre is published by Shearsman Books in October 2009.  Her first collection Burning the Heartwood was published by Shearsman in 2006. Her website is at:  www.janetsutherland.co.uk

James Peake was born in Wimbledon in 1978 and studied at Bristol University and Trinity College, Dublin. His poems have appeared in several magazines including Succour, for whom he has subsequently become London editor. He currently lives in London where he works for a major trade publisher.

Andrew McMillan has been poet-in-residence of his own life for 20 years. He splits his time between Lancaster (where he studies) and Barnsley (where he was born and raised. His work has appeared in various print and online journals including, Acumen, The North, The Reader, Fin and Cadaverine. He is co-editor of Cake Literary Magazine. His first pamphlet is due out from Red Squirrel Press in October.

Ken Champion's work has appeared in over a hundred magazines and anthologies, including Rialto, Smiths Knoll, Magma, African American Review and Iodine Poetry Journal. He has two pamphlets, African Time (2002) and Cameo Poly (2004) published by Tall Lighthouse and, recently, a full collection, But Black And White Is Better (2008).

Jesse Garrick has recently completed a Creative Writing degree at Falmouth University.

Mark Goodwin 's first full-length collection, Else, is published by Shearsman.