Ross Bradshaw
Mansfield Library, Westgate, Mansfield, Nottingham NG18 1NH
Phone: 01623 647 229
Fax: 01623 629 276
Email: fiveleaf01@surfaid.org
Geographical Area covered
Nottingham County
Short biography
Ross Bradshaw has been Nottinghamshire's Literature Development
Officer since June 1998. Prior to that he worked as a secretary
for John Heppell, the MP for Nottingham East. From 1978 - 1995
Ross worked in an independent and radical bookshop, and was at
one time secretary of the Federation of Radical Booksellers. In
addition to being LDO, he runs Five Leaves Publications, a small
press specialising in Jewish culture, which brings out 6 - 8 books
a year. Five Leaves has also published a number of writers from
the East Midlands.
Priorities:
a) Southwell Poetry Festival: a major poetry festival, held every
second year, in Southwell Minster.
b) Lowdham Book Festival: a week long, community based, book
festival - featuring visiting writers, community events, workshops
and talks... and music and drama.
c) County Lit. A termly, eight page magazine sent free to everyone
on the Nottinghamshire County Council Literature mailing list.
County Lit includes reviews of all books by local creative writers,
features and news on the local literature scene. Each issue includes
an in-depth interview with a local writer - past issues have covered
John Harvey, Jenny McLeod, David Belbin, Robert Harris, Alan Fletcher
and Stanley Middleton. Elizabeth Chadwick is the featured writer
in the next issue.
d) Nottinghamshire County Council and the Nottingham Evening
Post sponsor an annual Nottinghamshire Short Story Competition.
Smaller competitions are also organised with Radio Nottingham.
e) The Literature Development Office offers talks and seminars
on the publishing industry, organises taster sessions for those
new to prose and poetry and provides an information service for
anyone interested in reading and writing.
f) Nottinghamshire County Council gives particular support to
women writers (with an annual training conference), black writers
(through support for the Black Ink project) and older people (through
workshops aimed at elderly people).
g) Nottinghamshire County Council organises an annual one-day
"readers and writers festival" with stalls, workshops,
talks and displays. The third festival will be in Mansfield in
October 2001.
