Angela Readman is a British poet and short story writer. Her debut story collection Don't Try This at Home was published by And Other Stories in 2015. It won The Rubery Book Prize and was shortlisted in the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She also writes poetry, and her collection The Book of Tides was published by Nine Arches in 2016. Something Like Breathing, Readman's first novel, was published by And Other Stories in 2019.
Angela Readman won the International Rubery Book Award in 2015 for her book of short stories, . The book was also short listed in The Edge Hill short story prize. Her story 'The Keeper of the Jackalopes' won the Costa Short Story Award and her story 'Don't Try This At Home' was shortlisted for the same competition the previous year. In 2013, Readman won first prize in the Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition, judged by Kathleen Jamie. She won the National Flash Fiction Contest, and the Essex Poetry Prize in 2012 and was placed second in the first Short Story Competition in 2011. She has won New Writing North awards, and won the Ragged Raven longer poems competition . In 2005 she won The Biscuit Poetry competition and publication of a collection Sex with Elvis''. In 2016 she won The Mslexia Short Story Prize. In 2018, she came first place in The Antpn Chekhov Award for Short Fiction.
Work
Readman has published three full length collections of poetry and several shorter collections of work She was involved with The Flesh of the Bear Poetry exchange in 2004, which was a collaboration of Finnish poets and poets from the North East of England, including Bob Beagrie, Andy Willoughby, Esa Hirvonen, and Kalle Niinikangas.
In 2005 she edited Newcastle Stories and accepted a post teaching creative writing at the University of Northumbria. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including London Magazine, Staple, Ambit and Mslexia. On 31 December 2007, Frieda Hughes printed the poem Housewife from the Strip collection in her regular Timesnewspaper column
"Readman casts her eye on ordinary life with a sharp knife. This is witty, astute poetry of the inventive kind and feels important, as all good poetry should… Poetry with an edge" Julia Darling "Angela Readman’s work is a carefully stitched embroidery of the familiar and the often overlooked or taken for granted- she makes pictures that stay in your mind long after the poem has been read. Sharply observant, dry, savage and wholly authentic." Joolz Denby
