Mike Albo
Mike Albo is a writer and performer who loves and loves in Brooklyn, NY.
His first novel Hornito was published in 2000 and his new novel The Underminer
came out February 2005.
Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade became an international icon in 1992 with her sex and censorship
show Bitch!dyke!Faghag!Whore!. Quentin Crisp named her the woman he most
identified with and she's often refered to as 'The High Priestess of Gay
Wit and Widsom'.
Pete Ayrton
Pete Ayrton was born in London in 1943. He set up Serpent's Tail in 1986
with a commitment to publish striking and innovative writing an early
success was Neil Bartlett's Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall. In 1989,
Serpent's Tail won the prestigious Sunday Times Small Publisher of the
Year Award and is now recognized as one of the leading independent publishers
in the English language.
Adele Bertei
Adele Bertei's various musical collaborations include members of Pere
Ubu, James Chance and the Contortions and The Bloods, whose single Button
Up appeared on the recent New York Noise compilation (Soul Jazz). She
is currently co-conspirator and frontperson for the band Anubian Lights,
and is penning her first novel. Bertei resides in LA where she also works
as a writer, director and editor in film.
Cathy
Bolton works as a writing development worker for Commonword community
publishers, a partner organisation on the Big Gay Read. She co-edited
the City Secrets anthology of short stories by lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender writers from the North of England. Her poetry and short
fiction has appeared in a wide range of literary journals and anthologies.
Jan Bradley
Jan
Bradley works as a fundraiser for queerupnorth, a partner organisation
on the Big Gay Read. She lives in Manchester with her partner and children.
Joanna Briscoe is the author of three novels including Sleep With Me.
She is also a critic and features writer for several newspapers. She lives
in London with her family.
Louise Carolin is the deputy editor of DIVA magazine. 
Wayne Clews edits the lesbian and gay section of City Life magazine in
Manchester, he is also literary editor at Attitude magazine and deputy
manager of the Oxfam bookshop in Chorlton. He regretfully lives in Salford.
Billy
Cowan studied Imaginative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University.
His first stage play Smilin' Through won the 2002 International Writing
Out playwriting award for new lesbian and gay plays. His short film script
The Dress won the new queer writing initiative and was workshopped during
the first Liverpool Gay & Lesbian Film Festival November 2004. Billy is
currently studying for his M(Phil)B in playwriting at Birmingham University
where he is writing a new play called The Greenhouse.
Jane Czyzselska edits the British lesbian monthly, DIVA. In her spare time, Jane djs under the moniker The Bearded Lady, with the farmyard- inspired club collective, PiG. Her favourite colour is black and she strongly believes that neckties should be a staple of every girl's wardrobe.
Tessa Leigh Derfner
Tessa
Leigh Derfner is the manager for singer/composer/pianist Diamanda Galas.
She is an experienced stage director whose work has been presentedin several
theatersand festivals throughout the United States. Also a fiction writer,
Tessa is currently at work on a novel about life as a transgender man
from the Dominican Republic in New York City during Stonewall. She lives
with her partner Angela in Greenwich Village.
Frances
Dickenson is an award winning documentary film-maker and a partner in
The Christmas TV and Film Company. She has made documentaries about k.d.lang,
School Reunions, Lesbian Beauty Queens and a swindler who convinced 30
people to leave their homes and families to take part in Reality TV show
that existed only in his head.
Stella
Duffy has written ten novels, the latest Mouths of Babes was published
in July this year. State of Happiness (2004) was long listed for the 2004
Orange Prize, and is in development with Fiesta Productions. She was co-editor
of the anthology Tart Noir, from which her story Martha Grace won the
2002 CWA Short Story Award. She has written over twenty five stories and
many feature articles. With the National Youth Theatre she adapted her
novel Immaculate Conceit for the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith.
As an actor she is a member of Improbable's Lifegame company, has worked
with comedy company Spontaneous Combustion for sixteen years and most
recently performed her second solo show Breaststrokes at BAC, in summer
2005 she wrote and directed Cell Sell for the National Youth Theatre at
the Soho Theatre.
Stella was born in South London and grew up in New Zealand. She has lived
in the UK since 1986.
Martin
Firrell, public artist, was born in Paris, unexpectedly, on the Champs
Elysees outside what is now Sephora. He was educated in England but left
school unofficially at 14 because he 'had no more use for it'. He works
exclusively in London, placing text in public spaces including Leicester
Square, London mainline stations, Curzon Cinemas, the Donmar Warehouse
and Trafalgar Square. He lives in Soho, London and is London Cultural
Ambassador for the International Herald Tribune.
Sue
Fletcher, is a freelance marketing/PR consultant working in the creative
sector. 
Christopher
Fowler is the author of 26 novels and collections of short stories, including
'Spanky', 'Demonizeed' and 'The Water Room' (winner of this year's August
Derleth Novel Of The Year). He lives in London.
Emma
Gaze is the drummer in Electrelane. They released their third album Axes
early this summer & have just got back from touring america with Le Tigre.They
will be playing in Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Greece & Serbia
this autumn.
Helena Goldwater is an Artist who has worked extensively both nationally
and internationally and received many awards. This year she performed
at home (an art/performance venue in London) in an intimate solo work,
Hot Soak, and exhibited her paintings at the Newlyn Art Gallery in Lost
and Found in Translation. She has been selected as one of the new Trajectory
Artists for Space and Artquest for 2005/6.
Niven Govinden
Niven Govinden's debut novel 'We Are The New Romantics' was published by Blommsbury last year. He lives in London, where he is currently putting the finishing touches to his new book.
Del
LaGrace Volcano is a gender variant visual artist using herm's body, life
and loves as source material for herm's work. Del has produced numerous
short videos and films and three monographs, Lovebites (1991), The Drag
King Book (1999) and Sublime Mutations (2000). SEXyWORK, Del LaGrace Volcano
1979-2005, will be published by Konkursbuchverlag autumn 2005 and Femmes
of Power:Exploring Queer Femininities in 2006.
Christopher
Green is perhaps best known for his comedy characters Tina C. and Ida
Barr. With the Duckie collective he won the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment
for in 2004 and is currently working on a commission for a theatre show
for Tate Britain and a run of country singer Tina C. at the Barbican Theatre
in London.
Paul
Harfleet is an artist based in Manchester. His most recent work The Pansy
Project (www.thepansyproject.com) presents images of the locations where
Paul has planted pansies at the locations where he has recieved homophobic
abuse. Paul also co-runs Apartment, an artist led project space, from
his sixth floor flat on a council estate in central Manchester.
Neil
Hunter co-wrote and co-directed Boyfriends and The Lawless Heart. 
Kathe
Izzo is a poet, film-maker and conceptual performance / installation artist
that works with love: childhood, motherhood, sex and community. Over the
past several years she has realised her commitment to direct energetic
transmission as art through her TRUE LOVE PROJECT (www.trueloveproject.com)
in art venues and public spaces across the US and Europe. Izzo's poetry,
memoirs and short fiction have been published in numerous journals and
anthologies including the recent Thrills, Pills & Heartache, Aroused and
The American Bible of Outlaw Poetry. She is currently at work on a memoir,
Love Artist.
Paul
Kearns was born in Western Samoa, raised by transvestites (fafafini's),
grew up in New Zealand, graduated from Sydney University in Australia,
and moved to the UK eleven years ago where he now lives with his partner,
George.
As Chair of BT Kaleidoscope, he is dedicated to taking LGBT people to
the heart of BT. Meeting other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
employees, and sharing experience, knowledge and skills is what he finds
most rewarding about his work at BT. He is proud to have achieved so much
already in creating a network focussed on opportunity and development
for all, equality, fairness and representation at all levels, and finds
it rewarding to see BT Kaleidoscope's friendships and influence growing.
Amy
Lame is a chubby, glamorous multi-talented wunderkid. You may have heard
Amy on BBC London's Breakfast Show with Danny Baker, or seen her on ITV's
"Celebrity Fit Club", where her feisty attitude has provoked
love/hate relationships with fitness guru Harvey and Freddie Starr. Amy
has appeared on countless other television and radio programmes, from
"Richard and Judy" to "Woman's Hour”. She writes
regularly for broadsheets and magazines, and hosts her own performance
club night, Duckie, every Saturday. She is also an accomplished presenter,
voiceover artist and photographic model, too.
David Leavitt
David Leavitt is an author and critic. He has written an introduction for the new Penguin UK edition of Maurice.
Sadie
Lee is a figurative painter known for her portraits of women whose appearance
or behaviour could be considered 'inappropriate' in today's society. Solo
exhibitions include Venus Envy at Manchester City Gallery (1994), Don't
Look at The Museum of Modern Art, Slovenia (1999) and A Dying Art: Ladies
of The Burlesuq' at the National Portrait Gallery, London (1997). She
is also a DJ and promoter of Lower The Tone, a club for people who hate
clubs. She lives and works in London.
Wendy
Macdonald is Deputy Editor of Mslexia , the magazine for women who write.
(www.mslexia.co.uk)
Royce Mahawatte is a lecturer at the University of the Arts London. He teaches creative writing in the city and is a regular contributer to the Times Literary Supplement.
John
Malpass is Chief Executive of queerupnorth, one of the coordinators of
The Big Gay Read. He grew up in a small town in North Carolina and has
since lived in Los Angeles and Glasgow. In 1997 he moved to Manchester
where he lives with his partner of thirteen years.
Jane
Mathieson co-ordinates Time To Read, a network of librarians working in
North West England to encourage reading. Time To Read is a partner in
The Big Gay Read which will be promoted throughout the North WestĄs library
services. Jane works from Manchester, lives with her family in Stockport
and devotes her spare time to reading and her allotment.
Vicky
Powell is the editor of Gay Times magazine. She is a big fan of historical
fiction/non fiction and reads a great deal. She likes travel, writes comedy
and lives in London with her girlfriend.
Mark
Ramsden is Palatine Library and Learning Centre Manager. He has worked
in Public Libraries for 7 years and loves his job. He believes strongly
in promoting LGBT material in libraries and will literally read anything.
His favourite authors are Angela Carter, Rose Tremain and David
Ebershoff.
Michelle Reid is Chief Executive of George House Trust, the North West's
largest HIV charity. She lives in Levenshulme with a Labrador called Dillon."
Helen Sandler is the director of the Libertas York Lesbian Arts Festival,
which runs from 27 to 30 October 2005 and is the UK's biggest lesbian
gathering (www.ylaf.org.uk). She has written two novels for lesbian readers,
Big Deal and The Touch Typist, and edited three anthologies of short stories
for Diva Books, two of which won Lambda Literary Awards in the US. Her
poems appear in Suspect Thoughts 13 and Chroma 3. Helen is also the books
editor of Diva magazine..
Elizabeth
Sharp is a musician and photographer living in Brooklyn New York. Her
band Ill Ease has released three albums and her photographs are collected
in various private and public collections. More information is available
at www.illease.com.
Zoe
Strachan is a novelist. Her first book Negative Space won a Betty Trask
Award and her second Cycle, has just been published in paperback by Picador.
Ben
Summerskill is chief executive of Stonewall. As well as playing a key
role in parliamentary lobbying, Stonewall works in a range of other areas
promoting fair treatment for lesbians and gay men across Britain.
Simon
Swift has been attempting to shimmy his way up the greasy pole of journalism
for the past five years. He is Deputy Editor of the Pink Paper and would
eventually like to live above an expensive Italian deli and write books
just like Jeanette Winterson.
Tim Teeman is Visual Arts Editor of The Times and also a feature writer
and interviewer for the paper. He is a former editor of The Pink Paper.
Stephanie
Theobald is the author of three novels: Biche- about weird sex in Paris,
Sucking Shrimp - about weird food in Spain, and Trix, out in paperback
this year - about a Californian Dominatrix and a waitress from Scarborough
who drive across America. Stephanie also works as the party editor of
society glossy Harpers and Queen. She says that the knobs at play reminds
her of the lesbian scene ie it's a small milieu where everyone has already
slept with everyone.
Lynne Tillman's most recent book is the story collection, This Is Not
It. Her last novel, No Lease on Life, was a finalist for the National
Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. In Fall 2006, Soft Skull will publish
her new novel, American Genius, A Comedy.
Matthew Todd is a comedian whose play Blowing Whistles was described by
Julie Burchill in The Times as 'Brilliant' and by Boyz as 'possibly the
most moving and engrossing gay play since Beautiful Thing. www.blowingwhistles.co.uk
Tricia Tuttle is the Film Reviewer for DIVA magazine, and has worked in
the film industry for The Script Factory, London Lesbian and Gay Film
Festival, London Film Festival and also Shooting People.
Carly Vaughan writes for DIVA and other publications. Written on the Body
was the first book she ever gave to her girlfriend. Well, lent, actually.
Helen Walsh was born in Warrington in 1977. She graduated from Liverpool
University with a first class honours degree and her dissertation on masculinities
and queer pornography was awarded the highest mark ever given by the department.
At 24, she moved back to her Mums and wrote Brass from her kitchen table
while coming off the anti-depressant drug Seroxat. She now lives in Liverpool
and is working on her second novel.
Louise Welsh is the author of The Cutting Room and Tamburlaine Must Die.
For many years she made her living as a dealer in out of print and second-hand
books. She lives in Glasgow.
Jan Whalen is a member of Commonword's Northern Gay Writers workshop and
the co-editor of Rain Dog poetry magazine. Her poetry and short fiction
has appeared in various journals and anthologies including City Secrets.
Natalie
Wilson studied Theatre Studies at Glasgow University. Alongside her work
with Truant Company, she is currently an independent Director, working
in many of the leading Regional Theatres, Drama Schools and Community
Arts organisations in the UK.