Crossing the Tees Book Festival are delighted to announce our writer-in-residence for 2025’s festival.
Amy Lord is a novelist and short story writer from Middlesbrough. She is the author of award-winning dystopian novel, The Disappeared, which imagines an alternate Britain where banned books become weapons of the resistance.
She also writes short fiction inspired by the changing post-industrial landscapes of North East England, using elements of magic or the uncanny to bring an unexpected dimension to the story. She was a recent finalist in the Mslexia Short Story Competition and the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies.
During this year’s Crossing the Tees Festival, Amy will lead a series of writing workshops in libraries across all five local authorities, designed to inspire writers and generate new story ideas, as well as help writers to learn new story writing techniques and develop their self-editing skills.
Amy will also be offering 1-1 mentoring sessions for writers attending the festival workshops, when she will provide feedback and support on their work and help them to prepare an entry for this year’s Crossing the Tees short story competition. Mentoring sessions will be available on a first come, first served basis.