Catherine Simpson has been shortlisted in the Mslexia Novel Award, the Asham Award, Bristol Short Story Prize and Bath Short Story Award. Her work has featured in anthologies and she has performed it at various festivals (including Edinburgh International Book Festival) and on BBC radio.
“I am a novelist, memoir writer, poet and journalist. My first novel, Truestory, (Sandstone Press, 2016) was inspired by raising my autistic daughter, Nina. Nina and I now campaign together (and separately) for Autism Acceptance. My memoir, When I Had a Little Sister, (Fourth Estate, 2019) is about the death by suicide of my sister Tricia and is an exploration of how we become the people we are. It is also an elegy to growing up in the countryside of the 1970s.”
Catherine Simpson told us about working with the Creative Writing Group:
“We have had four of the writing sessions with me as tutor, plus another session attended by Library HQ Staff. There are six writers coming along each week who vary in levels of experience from novice to more experienced. We have covered various aspects of memoir writing – how to tell our stories – and all the writers have produced interesting work that has been enjoyed by everyone. They are engaged, enthusiastic and have begun to form a very supportive group. They seem keen to continue as a writing group beyond my taught sessions. We have all been made very welcome at Kilmacolm Library”.