Every day this week, in advance of opening our Academy submission window for 2021/22 next week, we are profiling our 6 Academicians of 2020/2021. First up is Lynn Bauman-Milner.
I’ve been writing as a hobby for years; once I left teaching, I wrote to escape from the demons in my head. I enjoyed it so much, and after having
a memorial essay published by Canada’s national newspaper, I decided to develop my skills in the best way I knew how – I enrolled at Leeds Trinity University in the MA for Creative Writing. During that time, I was the co-editor on the university’s first anthology, Inspiration: A Space for Words, and my short story collection was selected to be published by the university’s WordSpace imprint. Since the MA, I’ve joined the Sacred Order of Librarians, and have enjoyed inspiring students to try new books, as well as being inspired by them to expand my own repertoire of reading.
I continue to write short stories, mainly to experiment with voice and the impact of vocabulary. Two of my stories have been performed at Liars’ League events in London – Sick Face and In-Between. Sick Face went on to place second in the Northern Short Story Festival Fiction Slam 2019, and has been permanently published in LTU’s anthology, All is Flux. I run a monthly writing group, Penguin Lab (currently on a summer break), and organise Yorkshire Penguin Posse open mic evenings every three to four months, where all are welcome to share their creative endeavours as well as those things that inspire them. I enjoy performing my stories for audiences around Leeds; I’m looking forward to returning to safe gatherings once more. I’ve lived in Leeds since 2005, and it feels like I’ve come home – as it turns out, my maternal grandmother was born and raised in Bradford, so I’ve been a Yorkshire girl all my life, without even realising it. If you haven’t guessed, I’m originally from Canada.
The Northern Short Story Festival Academy provided a fantastic opportunity for me to stretch my writing into a different genre, as well as experiment with styles and voices. The feedback from the talented writers in the Academy allowed me to see my own work with new eyes – human, not demon eyes for once. Still a member of the Librarian Order, I intend to give demon hunting a rest while I explore the world of a girl called Bard to find out if her story has more to tell me.
You too can join our Academy. We’re opening our submission window on Monday 23rd August. Read more here.
