Peter Deadman Peter Deadman co-founded Infinity Foods – a natural and organic foods business in Brighton – in 1970, opening a restaurant, shop, bakery and warehouse distribution unit. In 1978, he completed training in acupuncture and later in Chinese herbal medicine, practising both until 2001. He is the founder, editor and publisher of The Journal of Chinese Medicine and co-author of the textbook A Manual of Acupuncture. He began writing creatively in 2007 after leaving The Matzos, a klezmer band he played violin with for a number of years. In June 2009, he completed a certificate course in creative writing at the University of Sussex. His story Emile in the Circus won the University of Plymouth’s Short Fiction magazine new writers’ competition in 2009. Click here to read his short-listed story.
Michael E. Halmshaw Michael E. Halmshaw was born in Leeds in 1985. He teaches English as a Foreign Language in Manchester and is currently writing his first novel. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TEXT CONTAINS STRONG AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE Click here to read his prize-winning story .
Vicki Jarrett Vicki Jarrett has returned to writing fiction after a ten year break. Her work has appeared in several recent anthologies, including Days Like This, published in association with the Scottish Book Trust. Before her break, she was short-listed for the McAllan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition and had her work performed on BBC Radio 4's Storyline. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner and eight year old twins and earns a living writing software manuals. She is currently writing more stories, working on a screenplay and planning her first novel. [Warning: The following text contains stronhhg and offensive language] Click here to read her short-listed story
Toby Litt Toby Litt grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. He has worked as a teacher, bookseller and subtitler. A graduate of the Creative Writing M.A. at the University of East Anglia, he is the author of Adventures in Capitalism, Beatniks, Corpsing, deadkidsongs, Exhibitionism, Finding Myself, Ghost Story, I play the drums in a band called okay, Journey into Space and the forthcoming King Death. He is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TEXT CONTAINS STRONG AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE Click here to read his prize-winning story.
Jennifer Mills Jennifer Mills is the author of a novel, The Diamond Anchor, and a chapbook of poems, Treading Earth. She was the winner of the 2008 Marian Eldridge Award for Young Emerging Women Writers, the 2008/9 Commonwealth Short Story Competition (Pacific Region), and the 2008 Northern Territory Literary Awards (Best Short Story). Her work has appeared in Hecate, Overland, Heat, Griffith Review and Best Australian Stories 2007, and she is a regular contributor to New Matilda and Overland. She lives in Alice Springs, Australia. Click here to read her short-listed story.
Alison Moore Alison Moore was born in Manchester and grew up in Leicestershire, where she lives with her husband Dan and son Arthur. She works as PA to the Director of Lakeside Arts Centre at the University of Nottingham. Since 2000, her short stories have been published in magazines, including The New Writer, and in competition anthologies, winning prizes in Wales and Northern Ireland and reaching the shortlist for the Fish Prize and the Bridport Prize. Click here to read her short-listed story.

If you have any queries, or would like to know more about the competition, please contact James Draper, Project Manager for the Manchester Writing School at MMU, on +44 (0) 161 247 1787 or j.draper@mmu.ac.uk. The Manchester Writing School will be launching the second Manchester Poetry Prize in 2010.


Judges’ accommodation provided by the Midland Hotel, Manchester. For Hotel Reservations: phone 0845 074 0060