MEET THE YAFFLES!
Mike Farren
Mike is a poet and academic publishing editor. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies including The Interpreter's House, The High Window, Strix and Valley Press's Anthology of Yorkshire Poetry. His pamphlet, ‘Pierrot and his Mother’ was published by Templar in 2017. In 2018 he was a ‘canto’ winner for Poem of the North and was highly commended in the Poem and a Pint competition, judged by Clare Shaw. In 2019, he was runner-up in the Blue Nib chapbook competition, judged by Helen Mort. He is a member of Beehive Poets and Wharfedale Poets, chair of the Bradford Poetry Foundation and co-hosts the Rhubarb open mic. Mike's pamphlet 'All of the moons' was published by Yaffle in May. Mike is one of Yafffle's managing editors.
Mark Connors
Mark is an award winning writer from Leeds, UK. He has had over 170 poems published in anthologies, magazines and webzines. Mark's work has appeared in anthologies published by Smith Doorstop, Ilkley Literature Festival, Indigo Dreams, Beautiful Dragons, Half Moon Books and Stairwell Books among many others. Mark's poems have also appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, Envoi, Prole, The Interpreter's House, Dream Catcher, Strix, Sarasvati, Dawn Treader, Confluence and many other literary journals, magazines and webzines. Mark's debut poetry pamphlet, Life is a Long Song was published by OWF Press in 2015. His first full-length poetry collection, Nothing is Meant to be Broken, was published in 2017 by Stairwell Books. His second collection, Optics, was pubished by YAFFLE in 2019. Mark's debut novel, Stickleback, was published by Armley Press in 2016. Stickleback was Longlisted for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2016. Mark's second novel, Tom Tit and the Maniacs, was published by Armley Press in 2018. It was selected as one of Culture Vulture’s Novels of 2018, Mark's award winning short fiction has won him prizes and commendations at North London Literature Festival, Dartmoor Literature Festival and Otley Word Feast. Mark also won the prestigious open mic competition at Ilkley Literature Festival both in 2014 and 2015. Mark also runs fiction and poetry workshops and seminars in libraries, at literature festivals and for writing days hosted by those running literary magazines. Mark runs WORD CLUB, a critically acclaimed poetry night, with his partner, Gill Lambert at The Chemic Tavern in Leeds and the bi-monthly Shaken in Sheeptown at Bojangles Bar in Skipton. Mark is managing editor At YAFFLE.
Gill Lambert
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Gill is a teacher and poet from Keighley. She has had her poems published in print by Strix, Prole, The Interpreter's House, Marble, Beautiful Dragons, Paper Swans Press, Indigo Dreams and Half Moon Books amongst others and online by Alegbra of Owls, Clear Poetry, Poetry Space, Runcible Spoon, Ink and Sweat and Tears. She was the winner of the 2016 Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic competition and she was commended in the Mother's Milk pamphlet competiton the same year. Gill's pamphlet 'Uninvited Guests' was published in 2017 by Indigo Dreams and her first full collection 'Tadaima' was published by Yaffle this year. Along with her partner, Mark Connors, Gill runs the poetry nights 'Word Club' in Leeds and Skipton's 'Shaken in Sheep Town' and she facilitates work shops in many locations. She is a managing editor for Yaffle.
Penny Sharman
Penny has an MA in Creative Writing from Edge Hill University. She has had over fifty poems published in magazines and anthologies such as The Interpreters House, Strix, Obsessed with Pipework, Coast to Coast to Coast, Beautiful Dragons, Marble Poetry and Poetry Quarterly.
Penny’s debut Pamphlet 'Fair Ground' was published in March 2019
by Yaffle.
Adrian Salmon
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Adrian is a fundraising consultant and classically trained singer. He lives in Bingley, West Yorkshire. Since he started writing poetry 18 months ago, his poems have appeared on Algebra of Owls, I am not a silent poet, Ink Sweat and Tears and Poetry 24. His poem ‘Six Connecticut Seascapes’ is part of the Yaffle Prize longlist and will appear in Yaffle’s Whirlagust anthology. His debut pamphlet, Moonlight through the Velux window, was published by Yaffle in June.
Paul Waring
Paul is an award-winning poet from the Wirral, UK and a member of the Wirral Poetry Festival organising team. He was first runner-up in the 2019 Yaffle Prize, a winner in the 2018 Wirral Festival of Firsts ‘Greenspaces with Lens and Pen’ competition, and was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize. His poems are widely published in print journals, anthologies and online magazines including Prole, Atrium, Strix, Algebra of Owls, Here Comes Everyone, Amaryllis, Riggwelter, Clear Poetry, Three Drops From A Cauldron, High Window, The Curlew, Ofi Press, Marble Poetry and The Lampeter Review. Paul's pamphlet 'Quotidian', was published by Yaffle in 2019
Pat Edwards
Pat is a writer, workshop facilitator, performer, reviewer and general poetry activist. Her work has appeared in Prole, Magma, Ink Sweat & Tears, Atrium and others, as well as in a number of anthologies. Pat was commended in the Geoff Stevens memorial competition organised by Indigo Dreams in both 2018 and 2019. She hosts Verbatim poetry open mic nights and curates Welshpool Poetry Festival. Pat's first pamphlet 'Only Blood' will be published by Yaffle in October.
Matt Nicholson
Matt is a poet from East Yorkshire. His two poetry collections to-date, There and back to see how far it is and We are not all blessed with a hat-shaped head, bristle with words that are sometimes dark and intense, sometimes lyrical and tender, but always painstakingly honest. He completed his first national tour, supporting Matt Abbott, in 2018, and his next
collection will be published by Yaffle Press in 2020.
Keith Lander
Keith Lander has been a poetry lover since his late teens, but didn’t begin writing any until 2001. He's been on lots of workshops, especially with the Poetry School, attended a number of Arvon Courses, completed three years with the Open College of the Arts, and obtained an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan university. Pandemonium is Keith's first publication. His website is: https://www.keithlander.co.uk
Simon Currie
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Sue Butler
Sue Butler has been reading poetry aloud in the bath since childhood. Toward the end of her career as a GP she began to reflect on the gift and the burden of such an intimate connection with so many peoples’ lives. This was when she took up both walking and Creative Writing. She considers both to be unpredictable forms of meditation on life in all its grace, pain and peculiarity. Sue has an MA in Creative Writing from the Open University. Her work has been published in the Hippocrates prize anthology 2020 and on the One Hand Clapping and Poetry and Covid sites. Her debut pamphlet ‘Learning from the Body’ was published by Yaffle in 2020. She is a member of Otley Poets and Otley Stanza. Sue is also a Soroptimist - For each pamphlet sold she is making a donation to Bradford Refugee Action.
Linda Marshall
Linda Marshall, poet and one-time co-editor of Aireings poetry magazine, has enjoyed far too many cappuccinos in her lifetime. Hence the preponderance of café poems in her latest collection Cloud Cuckoo Café from Yaffle Press. Her previous books include Brakken City (Fighting Cock Press 1997) and Half-Moon Glasses (Flux Gallery Press 2009). Linda has also had work published in a host of magazines, anthologies and booklets. In 2012 she was commissioned to write a poetic tribute for the centenary of Cottage Road Cinema in Far Headingley and took part in the celebrations. She has written ekphrastic poetry, and her word-pictures have adorned local artist Lilliane Gosling’s magical, Indian-themed Theyyam paintings. She took part in a Leeds Lieder event in 2013, collaborating on a feminist song/poem performed at Leeds College of Music. Recently she co-edited Corona Ceoil, an anthology of prose, memoir and poetry contributed by the Leeds Irish community and published by LIHH.
Ben Banyard
