The tutors
Martyn Bedford is the author of five published novels: Acts of Revision, which won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award; Exit, Orange and Red; The Houdini Girl, which is currently being developed for film; Black Cat; and The Island of Lost Souls. His work has been translated into eleven languages. Martyn reviews for the Literary Review, is a regular tutor in fiction writing for the Arvon Foundation, and
is a critic-in-residence on
the Arts Council-sponsored creative writing website YouWriteOn. He was a judge for the 2002 Betty Trask Awards, and was lecturer in creative writing at Manchester University 2001-06. Martyn took up a six-month residency as teaching fellow in creative writing at the University of Leeds in January 2008. He is currently working on his sixth novel, The Fifth Room.
Phil Whitaker is the author of four published novels: Eclipse of the Sun won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. Triangulation was joint winner of the Encore Award for best second novel. His third novel, The Face, is currently being developed for film, and his fourth novel, Freak of Nature was published in 2007. Phil is a literary consultant to the Arts Council-sponsored creative writing website YouWriteOn. Previous appointments include external assessor for the MA in creative writing at UEA, judge for the 2003 Betty Trask Awards, judge for The New Writer Prose and Poetry Awards. Visit www.philwhitaker.co.uk.