Holly Barratt

I'm nearing the end of my MA in Creative Writing, so I'm currently producing huge amounts of stuff (about 75% rubbish, and 25% workable!) I've written since before I knew how to write, making up long meandering fairy tales and recording them on my Dad's old tape recorder from before I started school. At primary school I wrote ghost stories. As a teenager I wrote (mostly) dreadful goth poetry. After my BA in English and Politics I ended up in a waitressing wilderness for two years before deciding to go back to college to force me into deadlines and taking the whole thing a bit more seriously. The MA has really helped me with discipline and re-drafting skills, I'd definetly recommend it to anyone who has chronic problems with getting stuff finished. I've written in all sorts of genres, but over the past two years I seem to have carved myself out a niche in surreal/ magic realist short stories (usually with erotic subtext, or just outright bawdy when I'm in that kind of mood!) I also write poetry occasionally, although I'm not as good as it as I'd like to be.

I'm British. I hear this earns one kudos in some circles.