Annette Keen

I started writing more than twenty years ago and have had several short stories published in magazines and anthologies. My first novel, The Generation Club, won the 2008 Yeovil Literary Prize and I self-published this, and two subsequent novels: 'Distant Cousins' and 'Finding Bella'. I have written song lyrics, set to music and recorded by a professional jazz singer, and have also been a freelance writer for Penguin Longman, contributing to their series of reading books for the English Language learner market, mainly adaptations of contemporary novels or film tie-ins. Two of the books I adapted: The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2010) and The Cellist of Sarajevo (2014), were finalists in the Language Learners Literary Awards for their year.

My other passion, alongside writing, is jazz and I am a club promoter and a booking agent for musicians. When I'm not writing or jazzing I make patchwork quilts and theatre costumes, and get some much-needed exercise from yoga and ballroom dancing.