Linda Leatherbarrow is a British short story writer and illustrator. Her stories have been published in her collection, Essential Kit (Maia Press 2004) and many magazines including Ambit

Ambit (magazine)

Ambit is a literary periodical published in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1959 by Dr Martin Bax, a London paediatrician.Uniting art, prose, poetry and reviews, the magazine appears quarterly and is distributed internationally. Notable Ambit contributors have included J. G. Ballard, Eduardo...

, Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

, Mslexia

Mslexia

Mslexia is a British magazine for women writers, founded by Debbie Taylor and edited by Daneet Steffens. Mslexia contains articles on writing and writers and encourages independent publishers and bookshops and innovations in writing. Many well-respected writers have contributed articles, including...

 and Writing Women, and in several anthologies. They have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

.

Biography

Linda Leatherbarrow was born in Dumfries, Scotland, and brought up in England and Scotland. In her early career she created, illustrated, printed and published several limited-edition illustrated books of poems for her Little Bird Press. In 1995 she set up the Haringey

London Borough of Haringey

The London Borough of Haringey is a London borough, in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of three former boroughs. It shares borders with six other London boroughs...

 Literature Festival and co-ordinated it for three years. She has won 1st Prize of the London Writers Competition three times. In 2001 she won a Bridport Prize

Bridport prize

The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition was founded in 1973 and has steadily grown in stature and prestige. Today many thousands of entries are received from over 80 countries. In many cases a win in the Bridport Prize has led to further successes and helped to launch new...

 and an Asham Award. In 2006 she was given an Arts Council

Arts council

An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...

 award. Her story Ride was published in Norway by Cappelen

J.W. Cappelens Forlag

J.W. Cappelens Forlag, usually referred to as Cappelen, was one of the oldest publishing houses of Norway. J.W. Cappelens Forlag was founded in 1829 by Jørgen Wright Cappelen, of the distinguished Cappelen family. Torger Baardseth was the director of Cappelen between 1904 and 1943. JW Cappelens...

in an anthology of British writing for students of English literature and language despite the fact that the story is a single sentence with no full stops at all and is many pages long. It was also published in the anthology Even The Ants Have Names by Diamond Twig 2002.

From a review of Essential Kit: 'In this collection of varied and exquisite short stories, Linda Leatherbarrow brings together for the first time her prize-winning short prose with new and previously unpublished work. A wide-ranging, rich and surprising gallery of characters includes a nineteen-year-old girl leaving home, a talking gorilla in the swinging sixties, a shoe fetishist and a long-distance walker. The prose is lyrical, witty and uplifting, moving and always pertinent - proof that the short story is the perfect literary form for contemporary urban life. These stories display a seriously fresh original talent and are essential reading for short-story lovers everywhere.'