Victoria Bennett (MA Creative Writing, 2002) tells how she founded Wild Women Press and grew her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers, over 10 years between the hours of motherhood, care and grief.

"I have spent the best part of the last 30 years working freelance as a writer, poet and creative producer, with a focus on positive change and social engagement. The path to publication though, has been far from straightforward.I left school at 16, went back again at 20, and over the next 15 years, put myself through university (twice) gaining a BA (Hons) in English and Creative Studies from Portsmouth University (1996), and an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (2002). At the time, I was living and working in Cumbria. I moved to Cumbria in 1997. In 1999, I founded Wild Women Press to offer a space for rural northern women to share their stories and explore their creativity. A year later, the members of the group published their first book. Since then, the group has published poetry by several members, run workshops, salons, projects and events. In 2018, I set up the #WildWomanWeb, an online blog featuring 'threads' from wild women authors and creators around the world.

Initially writing in poetry, I have had poems appear in several anthologies, and published five pamphlets of poetry, the most recent being 'To Start The Year From Its Quiet Centre' with Indigo Dreams Publishing. Previous awards for poetry include a Northern Promise Award, and the Andrew Waterhouse Prize. I have also written for games-based storytelling. My work has been featured in The Guardian and most recently, at the Playing Poetry Festival at The National Poetry Library.

For the last fifteen years, alongside writing, I have also been a mother, home-educator, and full-time 'sandwich' carer, caring for elderly parents and a medically vulnerable son. I juggle these demands with chronic illness and disability.

I spent the last decade living on a social housing estate with my husband and son. Built over a former industrial stoneworks, it was here that we set about creating a wild apothecary garden. It also became the seed that grew my debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers - motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden. All My Wild Mothers was written over ten years between the hours of motherhood, care, and grief. An early extract won the Mother's Milk Writing Award 2017. It was then longlisted for the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize (2019), and the Penguin WriteNow (2020) programme, and won a Northern Debut Award for non-fiction from New Writing North, and a Society of Authors grant in 2020. This encouragement and early support enabled me to receive mentoring and spend time working on the book. As a disabled, low-income rural writer and carer, these awards were invaluable and I will be forever grateful for them.

It took a year of iterations and submissions, but then the book found representation with Jenny Hewson at Lutyens and Rubinstein, following a fantastic response from querying agents. It went on to be acquired in a hotly contested five-way auction, by Lisa Highton, at Two Roads Books. All My Wild Mothers was published February 2023.

After twenty-five years in Cumbria, I recently moved to Orkney. I write about this move in my newsletter, Wild Woman Life. https://wildwomanlife.substack.com/"

Further details about Victoria available on her website http://victoriabennett.me/