Photo credit: Lou Abercrombie What I'm up to now:  I am one year into a PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University to work on a book-length creative work inspired by particle physics - which will include short stories, poems, and other undefinables. I am also curator of a brand new website whipping up excitement about UK & Ireland short story activity ShortStops, and from October 2014 will be a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University.

I am a 2014 Gladstone's Library Writer-in-Residence and judge of the 2014 Bridport Flash Fiction Prize. I am also co-writer and editor, with Courttia Newland, of the forthcoming Writing Short Stories: A Writers & Artists Companion (Dec 2014).

How I Got Here: Born in London in 1970, I moved to Jerusalem in 1994. After making a living for 13 years as a science journalist, writing for publications such as WIRED and NewScientist, I gave it all up to write fiction, and am now based in Bristol, UK.

My second story collection, My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions,  was  published in May 2012 by Tangent Books and contain fifty six very short fictions. My first collection, The White Road and Other Stories, was commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers.  It contains a mix of flash fiction and short stories inspired by science.

My stories and poems have won various prizes, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, been published in print & online, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4 & performed. I teach regularly for the Arvon Foundation & also give readings & workshops in flash fiction, short stories & science-inspired fiction.

I was writer-in-residence in the Science Faculty at Bristol University from 2009-2012, and received an Arts Council England grant to work on a short story collection inspired by a year spent in a biochemistry lab. I am also founder and managing editor of The Short Review, an online journal dedicated to reviewing short story collections and anthologies and showcasing short story authors.