John Killick was born in Southport, Lancashire and was a teacher for thirty years in schools, colleges and prisons, before becoming a full-time writer in 1989. He now lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and has a flat near Edinburgh. He has been a writer in residence in a prison, a hospice and nursing homes. He has run many one-day and residential writing courses, and given a number of workshops for Lapidus in Scotland and Cornwall.

John founded ‘Littlewood Press’ in 1982, and ran it for ten years. He was Founder Secretary of the National Association of Writers in Education. He has published essays in The London Magazine, The Green Book, Poetry Review, PN Review, Quattrocento, Scintilla and The North. He also reviews regularly for The North.  Writing for Self-Discovery, co-written with Myra Schneider, was published by Element in 1998.

Magazines which have published his poetry include The London Magazine, Pennine Platform, Times Literary Supplement, The North, The Scotsman, Northwords, Lines Review, Sheaf and Scintilla. A collection Windhorse was published by Rockingham in 1996. A book of poems and paintings Over the Land, a collaboration with the artist Alison McGill, is due to be published in September 2007. John has given many readings, including appearances at the Lancaster, Ilkley and Cheltenham Literature Festivals.

Since 1992 John has worked extensively with people with dementia, and two books of poems have been published: You Are Words and Openings (1997 and 2000 Hawker). Communication and the Care of People With Dementia, co-authored with Kate Allan, was published by Open University Press in 2001, and The Arts and Dementia Care, co-authored with Ann Davis Basting, came from the National Center for Creative Aging, New York in 2004. He has lectured on creativity and dementia widely in this country, and also in Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, America and Australia. He has also broadcast on the subject, most recently in a documentary for Radio 4 Still Here, and has been interviewed on The Verb, You and Yours and Saturday Live.

e-mail John
web-sites:
John Killick
Dementia Positive

and in the shop ...
collections -
"Windhorse",
Rockingham

"Openings"
and
"You Are Words"
Hawker;

(forthcoming)  poems and paintings -
"Over the Land";

educational -
 "Writing for Self-Discovery",
Element;

"Writing Your Self",
Continuum Books;

"The Arts and Dementia Care",
NCCA;

"Communication and the Care of People with Dementia",
Open University Press

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