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I was born in Bradford in 1971. My father was from Trinidad and my mum was born in Newcastle upon -Tyne to parents who had fathers from Barbados and the Gold Coast.

I trained as a teacher at the Institute of Education, London, only to hang up my red pen and register after 7 years. These were 7 years of teaching which not only suppressed the students creativity but also my own.

I now dedicate my life to fostering creativity in everyone's life as I work within the community, with different groups of people, especially women. I encourage and motivate others to have the courage to build creative lives and fulfil their true potential.

I gave myself permission to be a writer when I enrolled on the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Northumbria. This course gave me the time and space to just be. "Art" is a form of the verb "to be" (Julia Cameron, 2002). At the core of life is art and creativity. I live my life as such.

In 2004, I was the first short story winner for Brown Skin books and have gone from strength to strength since, being awarded a spotlight award from decibel and Arts Council England, and successful coordinating the first literary festival spotlighting writers of colour in the North East with identity on tyne.

I currently live in Newcastle and am working on my PhD in Creative Writing, a novel every November, a series of monologues and my first poetry collection, working title ' Family Album. Read some poems from this collection here.

Updated: 12/10/2006

Sheree image © Sheree Mack. Text and images © Sheree Mack 2004