Profile: Clare Girvan

I am a reformed Hell’s Angel who escaped from inner city teaching in Birmingham last
century to live in a pretty Devon estuary town with my website designer husband and three
cats, and pursue my writing career.  I have won prizes in many short story competitions,
including the Ian St James, Fish and Asham Awards. 
    
Originally trained as a stage designer, I keep in touch with my theatrical roots by writing
plays, which vary in length from one minute to two hours.  My one-acters have been
performed in various locations including Dartington ‘Ways With Words’, Northcott Theatre,
Cygnet stage school and ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’ in Harrogate, and I have regularly had
plays accepted for Cambridge Naked Stage and MAD festivals.  They have also been
shortlisted in, among others, the Windsor Fringe Marriott, Ronald Duncan, Bunbury Banter
and Pomegranate competitions. 

My stories appear in the following anthologies:
  • Harlem River Blues, (Fish Historical) – The Burning
  • All the King’s Horses, (Fish Historical) - Titian’s Rose.  
  • Vision, (University of Hertfordshire) – The Picture of Edward Downie
  • Brought to Book, (Ian St James) – Hooks
  • The Catch, (Asham Award) – The Drawing Room
Other works:
  • My story The Nemesis of Meryton will shortly be published in an anthology for the Jane Austen short story competition.
  • My full length play, Rushmount, was chosen by Exeter University for their ‘Reading the Future’ project and given a staged reading at the Northcott Theatre, and chosen again for ‘Open Page’, London. 
  • My adaptation of Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm was performed locally, but I can’t take it any further, much as I would like to, due to licensing restrictions, by Curtis Brown.
Remaining ambitions: to have a play produced in a major London theatre, publish the/a novel
and win the Bridport short story competition.  And the Booker would be nice. 

See website: www.claregirvan.co.uk