Wordfringe presents two evenings at the Aberdeen Arts Carnival showcasing new writing from Aberdeen and North-East Scotland

Admission £3
one ticket covers both nights

Based in Angus, Knotbrook Taylor is a poet and sometime photographer; his first collection Beatitudes is now available from Blue Salt Publishing. He believes that without a creative element to his life the world becomes a humdrum place. His defines his poetry as a search for beauty and meaning. His work features Scottish places reinvented under his outsider's existential gaze.

See www.knotbrook.co.uk for more.

Catriona Yule is an Aberdeen poet, short story writer and playwright. Her first poetry collection Shedding Skin was published in November 2007 by Koo Press. She has recently completed Storylines, a course run by the Open College of the Arts, and is about to start another course with OCA to develop narrative techniques and build her short story portfolio.

She has also started to research a non-fiction project for teenagers and hopes to start work on a second poetry collection this year.

See www.catrionayule.co.uk for more.

Haworth Hodgkinson takes on the dual roles of poet and musician in the Blue Salt Collective, occasionally performing both simultaneously.

As a poet, he has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, and in 2007 his small collection A Weakness for Mermaids was published by Koo Press.

As a musician he has composed, performed and improvised for many theatrical projects, and has recently been playing with Susanne Olbrich's Strange Little Orchestra in Forres and Findhorn.

See www.haworthhodgkinson.co.uk for more.

Mhairi Allan is an Aberdeen based performer, dance tutor and choreographer with a background in contemporary dance. She has worked with many diverse groups of dancers of various ages and abilities in both a community and professional context. Recent work has been as performer in Sweet Love with Janis Claxton Dance at the CCA in Glasgow.

Previous collaborations with the Blue Salt Collective have inspired and stimulated her love of poetry and music and continue to fuel her passion for choreographic ideas.

Moira Brown has written for many years since her return to Aberdeen from Guyana in the 1960s. She writes short stories and poetry, has been successful in several short story competitions and has had poetry published in Reach small press magazine. Moira is presently the enthusiastic Chair of Aberdeen Writers' Circle.

Phyllis Goodall writes: ‘On my family's Aberdeenshire croft the person with most time to talk to me in my childhood was my great-grandmother. Born in 1856 and educated before the Education Act of 1872 forbad the use of the Scots, she had a wide and rich Doric vocabulary. Since ever I could write I have written stories and poems, mostly in Doric. I am a retired teacher, the teuchter wife of golf-playing toonser Tom, a tractable Grandma, an occasional gardener, dowser, Friend of Grampian Stones, Mensan, one-time Munro climber now reduced to Corbetts with Labcollie Floss, and the Secretary of the Huntly Writers.’

Ruth Howell grew up in Belfast but now lives in Aberdeen. She has won various awards for her poetry, short stories and humorous articles. Ruth has recently completed a novel for young adults and is currently using the pages from her unpublished adult novel to line the guinea pig cage.

Frances Jaffray was born in 1943, and writing has always been in the family. Her first marriage failed in 1986, and she married George in 1990. Between them they have four children and five grandchildren. Her work has been published in various anthologies, the latest in conjunction with the Wordies, the Ellon writing group.

Sheila Reid lives and works in the beautiful Lumphanan valley overlooked by the hills of the Mounth.

Judith Taylor comes from Perthshire and now lives and works in Aberdeen, where she is a member of Lemon Tree Writers. She writes poetry in English and sometimes Scots, and her first chapbook collection, Earthlight, was published in 2006 by Koo Press. She was Poet Number 91 in the StAnza 100 Poets Gathering in St Andrews in March 2007.

To Paulina Vanderbilt poetry is like a pinch of salt: without it Life would be bland and boring but it should not take itself too seriously. She has been actively involved in the local writers' scene as a poet and children's writer and has been published in The tide breathes out, Meeting Points and Pushing Out the Boat. She performs regularly at local events (Dead Good Poets, Wordfringe 2007/2008, Word 06). Publication of her first poetry collection with Koo Press is planned for the near future. Paulina is very proud to represent Dead Good Poets.

Christie VanLaningham writes fiction inspired by failed places, heirlooms, witchy women, abandoned children, lumberjacks, lovable demagogues, every kind of fairy tale, and what it means to be home. Her short stories have appeared in several North American literary journals, and she is currently working on a novel, from which her reading has been excerpted.

Cal Wallace writes short stories, monologues and other bits. He has represented the Lemon Tree Writers at various readings, including WordPlay (Shetland) and Word (University of Aberdeen). His one-act play Uncle Kenny was performed by Wordfringe Festival Players at Wordfringe 2007. His bestselling blockbuster is due to be written any year now.

Painting of Cal Wallace by David Liddell

Rapunzel Wizard performs comic poems with a political edge. This has led to him being called The Beast from Brighton, which was a good description until he moved to Aberdeen. Tonight offers a rare chance to hear some of his prose writing.