Linda Leatherbarrow was born in Dumfries, Scotland, and brought up in England and Scotland. In her early career she created, illustrated, printed and published several limited-edition illustrated books of poems for her Little Bird Press. In 1995 she set up the Haringey Literature Festival and co-ordinated it for three years. She has won 1st Prize of the London Writers Competition three times. In 2001 she won a Bridport Prize and an Asham Award. In 2006 she was given an Arts Council award. Her story Ride was published in Norway by Cappelen in an anthology of British writing for students of English literature and language despite the fact that the story is a single sentence with no full stops at all and is many pages long. It was also published in in the anthology Even The Ants Have Names by Diamond Twig 2002.

From a review of Essential Kit: 'In this collection of varied and exquisite short stories, Linda Leatherbarrow brings together for the first time her prize-winning short prose with new and previously unpublished work. A wide-ranging, rich and surprising gallery of characters includes a nineteen-year-old girl leaving home, a talking gorilla in the swinging sixties, a shoe fetishist and a long-distance walker. The prose is lyrical, witty and uplifting, moving and always pertinent - proof that the short story is the perfect literary form for contemporary urban life. These stories display a seriously fresh original talent and are essential reading for short-story lovers everywhere.'

Linda Leatherbarrow teaches creative writing at Middlesex University and the City Lit, London.

Books

• Grey Stones (Wood Engravings and Poems - Little Bird Press, 1980) ISBN 0906488036
• A Floating Diary (Little Bird Press, 1980) ISBN 090648801X)
• The shadow on the plain: A collection of myths and speeches of the Salishan Indians : with eight wood engravings (Little Bird 1983) ISBN 0906488052
• Visions of the Bone Idol by John Hegley (Author), Linda Leatherbarrow (Illustrator) Little Bird Press (1984) ASIN: B0016ZKLU2
• Glad to wear glasses (glad to have ears) by John Hegley (Author), Linda Leatherbarrow (Illustrator) Andre Deutsch (1990) ISBN 978-0233050355
• Essential Kit (Maia Press, 20 Oct 2004) ISBN 1904559107

Contributions to Anthologies

• Even the Ants Have Names (Diamond Twig 1 Nov 2002 ISBN 0953919633
• Harlot Red: Prize Winning Short Stories by Women (Serpent's Tail December 1, 2002) ISBN 1852428155 978-1852428150
• The Nerve
• Signals 2
• Sleeping Rough: Stories of the Night (Heinemann February 1992) ISBN 0413454010 978-0413454010
• British Council: New Writing 8 (Vintage 1999) ISBN 0-09-954571-3
• Slightly Foxed 3 'Distant Harmonies' Autumn 2004 ISBN 978-0-9548268-2-6
• Slightly Foxed 10 'Hooked' Summer 2006 ISBN 978-0-9551987-1-7
• Slightly Foxed 14 'A Rum Do' Summer 2007 ISBN 978-0-9551987-6-2
• Slightly Foxed 18 'How Not To Be a Grandmother' Summer 2008 ISBN 978-1-906562-01-4
• Slightly Foxed 20 'Do You Mind Me Just Asking?' Winter 2008 ISBN 978-1-906562-05-2