Siobhan Dowd
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'Siobhan Dowd' b. 1960
Siobhan Dowd was born in London to Irish parents. She attended a Catholic grammar school in south London and holds a BA Hons degree in Classics from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and an MA with distinction from Greenwich University in Gender and Ethnic Studies.
In 1984, she joined the writer's organisation International PEN, initially as a researcher for its Writers in Prison Committee and later as Program Director of PEN American Center's Freedom-to-Write Committee in New York City. Her work here included founding and leading the Rushdie Defense Committee USA and travelling to Indonesia and Guatemala to investigate local human rights conditions for writers. During her seven-year spell in New York, Dowd was named one of the "top 100 Irish-Americans" by Irish-America Magazine and AerLingus, for her global anti-censorship work.
On her return to the UK, Dowd co-founded, with Rachel Billington, English PEN's readers and writers programme, which takes authors into schools in socially deprived areas, as well as prisons, young offender's institutions and community projects. During 2004, Dowd served as Deputy Commissioner for Children's Rights in Oxfordshire, working with local government to ensure that statutory services affecting children's lives conform with UN protocols.
A Swift Pure Cry, Siobhan Dowd's first novel, was published by David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, in March 2006. It was long-listed for the Guardian Award (Guardian Children's Fiction Prize), and has been short-listed for the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. It is also on the Carnegie Medal Long-list for 2007.
Other Sources [http://www.siobhandowd.co.uk [Siobhan Dowd's Website]]
