Deryn Rees-Jones is a freelance writer and teacher. After reading English at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, she did doctoral research on women poems at Birkbeck college, and now lectures part-time at Liverpool Hope University College. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 1993, and an Arts Council of England Writer's Award in 1996. Her first collection, The Memory Tray, was published by Seren in 1994 and was shortlisted for a Forward Prize in 1995.