Linda Lee Welch
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Linda Lee Welch was born and raised in the USA. After completing a BA at the University of Alaska, working in radio, and teaching in the Eskimo village of Barrow, she came to England in 1976 to take a short course at RADA in London. She owned five acres of land, north of Fairbanks, Alaska, and planned to travel some and then go home and build a house. Instead, after her course, she joined a band and ended up settling down with the lead guitarist.
Since coming to the UK Linda has worked as a musician, community artist and teacher. She is currently a Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, and also runs Creative Writing groups in the Sheffield Community. Linda does poetry and music residencies in schools. Her band, Sneaky Peek, plays regularly in and around the UK.
Linda Lee has won prizes in the Bridport, York and Jersey poetry competitions. She won a commission to write a piece for the 2001 Off the Shelf Literary Festival, a piece that contained poetry, script, and songs, this was accompanied by Sneaky Peek. Her writing has been published in Mslexia, The New Writer, Staple, Young Hippo Spooky Poems, Sheaf, and Sheffield Thursday, among others, and can be found online in Proof and e-sheaf magazines.
The Leader of the Swans, her first novel, came out in February 2003 on the Virago imprint. The Artist of Eikando, her second novel, also with Virago, came out in November 2004.
In October/November 2002, Welch spent two weeks as a guest lecturer at Meikai University in Tokyo, Japan.
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