SPOTLIGHT ON SWWJ WRITER DAWN KNOX

One of our newest SWWJ members, Dawn is currently enjoying success seeing her work published in numerous British books, anthologies and magazines and in the theatre.  As a member of the Basildon-based Forget Never Project, she has written two plays about the First World War, one of which has been performed in England, France and Germany. The third will be performed for the first time on 10 November 2018. The project was set up in 2014 by Member of Parliament  Stephen Metcalfe to commemorate the centenary of World War One. 

I enjoy learning about an author's first step into the world of writing and discovered that Dawn became interested in writing about fifteen years ago when she was trying to help her son with his creative writing homework. She suggested a first sentence so that he could continue with the story but despite her best efforts, he lacked enthusiasm and has never shown the slightest interest since! She, however, was so inspired that she finished the story and then carried on writing other stories. However, it is only during the last five or six years that she has become more serious about writing - something that she now does every day. 

Her first published piece was a short horror story which appeared in a charity anthology entitled ‘Shrouded by Darkness - Tales of Terror’ (Telos Publishing) which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Society Award. 

Since then, she has had short stories published in various women’s magazines as well as in sci-fi, speculative fiction and horror anthologies. Dawn's first published book was ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’, a YA time slip adventure set in Essex (Muse it Up Publishing). She has also self published a book about World War One called ‘The Great War - 100 Stories of 100 Words Honouring Those Who Lived and Died 100 Years Ago’ which was shortlisted for the Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Her anthology of speculative fiction short stories entitled ‘Extraordinary’ was published by Bridge House Publishing and her latest book is a romance, set in 1930s Essex, called ‘Welcome to Plotlands’ (Linford Romance Library). A manuscript has just been accepted by My Weekly Pocket Novels and will be published in November. It is set in northern France and Essex and spans both World Wars. 

Yours truly with Dawn at her first lunch with SWWJ

Dawn has won first prize in the Waterloo Festival Writing Competition 2018 and the Nancy Meggs’ Non-Fiction Writing Competition 2017, and twice achieved second place in the Brentwood Writer's Circle Jack Kendall Fiction Writing Competition (2017 and 2018).