Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Carolyn Jess-Cooke is a poet and novelist from Belfast, Northern Ireland, now based in the north-east of England. In 2004 she completed a PhD in Shakespeare and film, and embarked on an academic career in film which resulted in four books: Shakespeare on Film (Wallflower, 2007), Film Sequels (Edinburgh Uni Press, 2009), Second Takes (co-edited with C. Verevis, SUNY, 2009) and Apocalyptic Shakespeares (co-edited with M. Croteau, McFarland, 2009). Between 2005 and 2009 she was Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, and from 2009-2011 she was Programme Leader for the Degree in Creative Writing at Northumbria University.

Carolyns first poetry collection Inroads received a Northern Writers Award, an Eric Gregory Award, a Tyrone Guthrie prize, an Arts Council Award, and was shortlisted for the New London Poetry Prize for Best First Collection in 2010. Her second collection BOOM! explores her experiences of motherhood and received a K Blundell award from the Society of Authors and a Northern Writers Award.

In 2009, Carolyns debut novel THE GUARDIAN ANGELS JOURNAL, about a woman who dies and comes back as her own guardian angel, was sold at a four-way auction at the Frankfurt Book Fair to Piatkus as their 2011 superlead title. The novel was published in 22 languages and was an international bestseller. Her second novel, THE BOY WHO COULD SEE DEMONS, explored themes of mental illness in the aftermath of the Northern Irish Troubles, and is currently being made into a Hollywood film.