Meet the Poet
Gareth Spark
Gareth Spark is from Whitby, Yorkshire. He began writing the poems that became his first collection, "At the breakwater" (Mudfog Press, 2001) in the late 90's. This led to a long association with The Network Arts organisation, out of which came residencies with the Pannett Museum, the North Yorkshire Library service, and several collaborations with the poet Ian McMillan, including the three-day Whitby Town Play festival. His second collection "Ram raid" (Skrev Press, 2004) was a critical success. In 2005, he moved to Spain, where he began to write his first short stories, as well as the poems that made up his third collection "Rain in a dry land" (Mudfog Press, 2008). A period of travel, followed by a wide variety of Blue-collar day jobs followed. Meanwhile, his short fiction and poetry appeared in Shotgun Honey, Line Zero, Ink, sweat and tears, Out of the Gutter, NAP, Poetry Bus and Deepwater Literary Review, among others. His story "American Tan" won second place in the GKBC International Short Story competition in 2013. The publication of his first collection of stories "Snake Farm" (Electraglade Press, 2015) followed. He reviews poetry online for Fjords Review, among others, and is a member of the Zelmer Pulp writing collective. He appears in multiple anthologies of noir/detective/crime short stories, including The Shamus Sampler II, Trouble in the Heartland, Maybe I Should Just Shoot You In the Face, as well as Rogue, Gloves Off, and other stories published by Near2TheKnuckle, as well as Twelve Mad Men, The Big Adios (Western Digest), Paladins, and Exiles. He currently works in Whitby, Yorkshire, plays a rough kind of blues guitar, and is working on a novel. Read.