Queen’s Park Voices, hosted by Chrys Salt MBE

Chrys Salt hosts local poets and authors in work written exclusively for the festival

Local poets and authors Mara Nkere, Simon Fellowes, Eamon Somers and Sue Whitmore discuss their work and read pieces written especially for the book festival, hosted by the Queen of Queen’s Park, actor and poet Chrys Salt MBE.

Eamon Somers

Eamon’s debut novel Dolly Considine’s Hotel was published in 2019. His short stories have been published in literary magazines including Tees Valley Writer, Automatic Pilot, and Chroma. The Journal of Truth and Consequences nominated his ‘Fear of Landing’ for a Pushcart Prize, and ‘Nataí Bocht’ was included in Quare Fellas, a collection of LGBT+ fiction published by Basement Press in Ireland. He is currently working on revisions to his novel A Very Foolish Dream, which was Highly Commended in the 2019 Novel Fair, sponsored by the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin.

Mara Nkere

Mara Nkere is a poet and procurement professional, residing in North West London. She holds a Masters degree in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Warwick and was nominated for the Melita Hume Prize (2019). She runs poetry workshops and lectures for sixth form colleges & schools. Mara is also known for incorporating scientific principles and deciphering human emotions in her poetry. You can learn more about her poems in matteandmetalmedia.com, her poetry blog. Cherry Cola, her debut collection, is a 2021 National Poetry Day Selection, Recommended for Young Adults.

Simon Fellowes

Simon Fellowes began his career working a music journalist for the NME. He signed to Chrysalis as singer/songwriter, part of the duo Intaferon, then as a solo artist ‘Simon F’, working in America with Warner Bros, and finally, as ‘F Machine’, with Infectious Records. He subsequently worked as a music video director, both in London and Los Angeles, before turning to screenwriting and writing novels. Most recently he has been combining writing with working as a brand strategist and copywriter for several major global corporations. He lives near Queen’s Park, London.

Sue Whitmore

Sue expresses the human experience through poetry and art. A published poet, she convenes The Brondesbury Group, which is celebrating its 21st birthday, a Stanza of the Poetry Society. A widely exhibited artist, including the RA Summer Exhibition, her multiple lives include theatre design, teaching landscape painting in the Spanish mountains and life drawing at the Tricycle. She was made a Champion of Culture by ‘Art in Business’ for her contribution to art in Brent. She is a member of Greenwich Printmakers.

Chrys Salt

Chrys has performed across the UK and Europe, India, Australia and Yukon. She was International Poet at The Tasmanian Poetry Festival 2019 and guest of honour at The Dialogia Festival in Finland this August. She has been recipient of awards and bursaries (various) and in 2014 was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Services to The Arts.