Grey Hen is based in West Yorkshire, and will make a point as far as possible, though not exclusively, of featuring the work of older women from the North of England.  We want to be inclusive, and it is important to us that Grey Hen should play a part in sharing the wide range of women’s experience in our multicultural communities.

Grey Hen was set up by Barbara Burford and Joy Howard.  Over the short time we have been going, Barbara unfortunately found herself unable to devote the time she wanted to Grey Hen, and withdrew from active involvement.  This has meant that we had to abandon our initial plans to include fiction and autobiogrphy. Joy is now concentrating on producing a growing catalogue of poetry publictions

Special Notice. In February 2010 Barbara sadly died.  She will be missed by everyone who knew her, and deeply mourned by Joy, who lived with her for 23 years and was her Civil Partner.

Barbara’s poetry and prose were widely anthologised. Publications include A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets (Sheba 1984) and The Threshing Floor, a short story collection(Firebrand Books 1987).  She was a co-editor of  Dancing the Tightrope: New Love Poems by Women (The Women’s Press 1987). A former research scientist and civil servant, in her retirement she ran a business consultancy and was Deputy Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford. The Threshing Floor is a regular recommendation on scholl and Further Education reading lists both in the UK and in the US.  She leaves an unfinished novel and very many short stories, to which she was hoping to return in 2011.

Joy’s poems have featured in several anthologies: Beautiful Barbarians (Onlywomen1986), Dancing the Tightrope (The Women’s Press 1987), Naming the Waves (Virago 1988), and Not for the Academy (Onlywomen 1999). After many years in social services, innovating and developing new approaches to fostering, she is finding a second career as a publisher very different, but equally rewarding. Joy is a contributor to Grey Hen first publication Second Bite, and her collection based on her experiences in the ’80s, Exit Moonshine, was a Grey Hen publication in 2009.  Recent poems have been published in Sofia, Sphinx ,The Interpreter’s House. and ARTEMISpoetry.  She was a prizewinner in the Chapter One Promotions Open Poetry Competition 2007 -this and more of her poems can be read on Poetry pf.