Staff and Board

Contacts

Founder, Publisher & CEO

Ra Page
Ra.Page[at]commapress.co.uk
Skype: commapress

Publishing Manager

(Editorial and Commissioning, Rights & Sales)
Sarah Cleave
Sarah.Cleave[at]commapress.co.uk

Engagement Manager

(Publicity and Marketing, Short Story Courses, National Creative Writing Graduate Fair)
Becky Harrison
Becky.Harrison[at]commapress.co.uk

Sales and Production Manager

(Digital, Events and Sales)
Becca Parkinson
Becca.Parkinson[at]commapress.co.uk

Consultant Editors

Sarah Eyre
Sarah.Eyre[at]commapress.co.uk
Dr Ana Miller

Design

Dave Eckersall, with additional design work by Matt Roeser, Lisa Romero and Steve Moyler

Website

Alex Kelly, Oxygen Computers.

If you're not sure which person you need to contact, email:
Ra.Page[at]commapress.co.uk

Patrons

Maxine Peake
Bolton-born and RADA-trained actress Maxine Peake has enjoyed a prolific career in theatre, television, radio and film with many career highlights, including The Theory of Everything, Shameless, Dinnerladies, Three Girls and many other award-winning TV dramas and theatre productions. Peake is a feminist and socialist and has often brought these views into her work. Peake is set to star in Mike Leigh's next feature, Peterloo, a feature film based on the events of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.

Courttia Newland
Courttia Newland was born in West London where he still lives and which inspires much of his writing. He is the author of three acclaimed novels from Abacus: The Scholar, Society Within and Snakeskin. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies. He is also the co-editor of IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain. Newland has, with his band of actors and an experienced director, cut his teeth in the world of theatre with his company, The Post Office Theatre Co. He was Fellow at the London College of Communication until December 2004 and works with selected Further Education partners in west London.

The Board

Sarah Jane Eyre (Chair)

Sarah is an artist and lecturer, and a co-founder of Comma Press, with Ra Page. She is Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Photography at Blackpool and the Fylde College, and has been working in the Further and Higher Education sector for 9 years. She also has twelve years of experience of working in the book trade, being the former Sales and Marketing Manager of Carcanet Press, and art buyer for Waterstone’s, Deansgate. She graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) in Photography, and has an MA in Documentary Film Production from University of Salford. Sarah has been involved in the region’s creative industries for 18 years, she hasworked as a photography studio assistant, an art workshop leader (for Castlefield Gallery, Manchester Gallery, Cornerhouse Gallery), co-organiser for Redeye: Northwest Photography Network’s exhibition masterclass programmes (in partnership with Harris Gallery, National Media Museum and Gallery Oldham), and set up Kiosk Gallery, an artist run pop - up exhibition space in Manchester. She has been involved with numerous Arts Council supported collaborative projects, with other artists and communities, including Bitmapping at Cornerhouse and Mid Pennine Gallery, and site specific projects with A Family Of.

Martyn Amos (Vice Chair)

Martyn is Professor of Novel Computation and Director of the Informatics Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University.

He contributed to Litmus and Bio Punk, and co-edited Beta Life. He works at the intersection(s) of computer science, biology, engineering

and architecture, and is currently writing a popular science book on crowds.

Kavita Bhanot
Kavita Bhanot grew up in London, lived for many years in Birmingham, then moved to India, where she directed an international literature festival and helped to set up India’s first literary agency. She recently completed a PhD at Manchester University, in Creative Writing and Literature. Her short stories and non-fiction have been published in anthologies, magazines and journals, two of her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and she is the editor of the short story collection Too Asian, Not Asian Enough (Tindal Street Press, 2011). She is a reader with The Literary Consultancy and a regular book reviewer for The Independent.

Ra Page

Ra is the founder and Editorial Manager of Comma Press. He’s the editor of numerous anthologies, including The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin, 1999), co-editor of The New Uncanny (winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, 2008) and Litmus, voted one of 2011’s books of the year by The Observer. Between 2004 and 2013 he was also the founder and coordinator of Literature Northwest, a support agency for independent publishers in the region (until it formally merged with Comma). He also coordinates Comma Film, an on-going film adaptation project which regularly commissions filmmakers and animators to adapt short literary texts (poems and short stories). He is a former journalist, having been Deputy Editor for City Life magazine, and a former Director of Manchester Poetry Festival. His critical work has been published in The Journal of the Short Story in English, and he’s been a producer, co-writer and co-director on a number of short film projects. He read Physics and Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford and has an MA in English from the University of Manchester.

Isaac Shaffer

Isaac is a human rights lawyer and activist working at a leading practise in London. He converted to law after graduating from the University of Leeds (BA (Hons) Philosophy 2003, MA in Literature and Philosophy, 2004) and primarily works on bringing public law challenges against abuses of power by the state. In this regard, he is particularly concerned with the growing use of immigration detention in the UK and with preserving access to justice as a universal principle (being a founding member of the Save Justice campaign) and campaigns and litigates on these issues. He has been involved with Comma Press since its inception in 2003 and edited Leeds Stories 1 & 2.

Ruth Daniel
Ruth is an award winning cultural producer, activist and social entrepreneur. She is Co-Director of Place of War - a support system for community artistic, creative and cultural organisations in places of conflict, revolution and areas suffering the consequences of conflict. She was Founder and Director of Manchester based independent record label, Fat Northerner Records (2003 – 2010); global grassroots music event and community founder and Director of Un-Convention; and Director of new seaside ‘festival of festivals’, One of These Days. Ruth is also a regular speaker at cultural festivals and events, including TEDX, British Council, International Alert, Primavera Sounds, Berlin Music Week.

Kerry Bertram
Kerry is an artist, coordinator and mentor. Currently Kerry works at Bolton CVS as Co-design Engagement Coordinator, and previously at Cartwheel Arts as Art for Wellbeing Project Coordinator. As a Fellow of the RSA, Kerry is a champion of arts making a difference in peoples lives and runs Time to Release; a project aiming to support people to overcome the effects of trauma through sensory art making and by producing and delivering talks, creative workshops and articles on this subject.

With a background in fundraising, management and team coaching, Kerry contributes to the mentoring training programme for Flourish CIC, and works as a mentor herself supporting female change makers in Manchester. Kerry's particular interests include supporting positive mental wellbeing of individuals, implementing change across Health, Social and VCSE sectors and providing platforms for community empowerment.

The Staff

Ra Page - CEO, Founder and Publisher
See above.

Sarah Cleave - Publishing Manager

Sarah joined Comma Press as Publishing Manager in January 2017. Prior to this she was Publishing Manager at Saqi Books and Telegram, where she oversaw the production, sale and distribution of literary fiction and non-fiction internationally. She was previously freelance Editor at Haus Publishing, and also worked in a communications role at the Migrants Resource Centre in London. She graduated from Glasgow University with a BA (Hons) in English Literature and French, and has a particular interest in women’s fiction in translation. Sarah was shortlisted for a London Book Fair Trailblazer Award in 2018.

Becky Harrison - Engagement Manager
Becky works on the marketing and press of Comma books, and the delivery of events including the National Creative Writing Graduate Fair. She has an academic background rooted in Cultural Studies, having gained her BA at the University of Leeds and her MA at the University of Amsterdam, where she developed a thesis on feminist science fiction, as well as a love of cycling. Since returning to the UK, she has worked for a number of northern arts festivals, moved back up to Leeds, and joined Comma in the summer of 2016 as they and other northern indie publishers commence the Northern Fiction Alliance. Becky was shortlisted for a London Book Fair Trailblazer Award in 2018.

Becca Parkinson - Sales and Production Manager
Becca joined us straight from finishing her undergraduate degree at Lancaster University. Whilst at university she was the Editor of both Cake Magazine and Flash Journal. After a previous internship at Carnegie Book production and an internship at Comma she was taken on full-time in Autumn 2016 to work on sales, production, digital and events. She is also currently Secretary of the Society of Young Publishes North branch.

Consultants

Sue Fletcher - Marketing & Publicity
Sue is communications and engagement specialist with over 15 years' experience in creative, not-for-profit and education sectors. She has considerable knowledge of fundraising and communications for effective income development, and significant strategic experience as manager and as volunteer chair of Community Arts North West and Manchester Craft and Design Centre. She is currently Head of Marketing and Communications at Oldham Colliseum Theatre and acts as a consultant for Comma Press. She has previously provided training for PANDA, University of Manchester, and Salford University, and mentored arts professionals at various institutions including Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Walk The Plank and Z-arts.

Basma Ghalayini - Finance
Basma has an academic background in Management Information Systems and has worked in various finance roles within the past seven years in the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. Currently she is Senior Finance Officer at Cellusys Limited. She has worked with companies and individuals to help plan their short and long term financial goals, and has significant command of tax, investment and insurance issues, in relation to a number of different industries.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are applying for a work experience placement in 2018, please include your CV, cover letter and availability in an email to info[at]commapress.co.uk. We will try and respond to everyone but apologies if you don't hear back from us immediately.

Our work experience placement schedule is now full until Autumn 2018.

For information about submitting short fiction to Comma's 'new writer' anthologies, go to FAQs. The email address in all cases for attached submissions is:
becky.harrison [at] commapress.co.uk
becca.parkinson [at] commapress.co.uk

Social Media

Trade Information

UK & Rest of World:
Trade orders to NBN International, 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 7PP
Email orders@nbninternational.com fax 01752 202333. Telephone 01752 202301
Comma's fiction titles are represented by Compass (sales@compass-ips.london; Tel: 01628 559500)

North American Distributor (United States of America, Canada, Latin America, South America, The Caribbean, The Philippines, Korea, Singapore and Micronesia):

Independent Publishers Group

Order Department

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago

IL 60610

Telephone: 00 1 312 337 0747

e-mail: frontdesk@ipgbook.com