Julia Darling (1956-2005) was a poet, playright and fiction writer. She was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University. In 2003 she became the second winner of the the UK’s biggest literary prize, the £60,000 Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award. Fiona Ellis, the Foundation’s Director, paid tribute after Julia’s death: ‘We were incredibly proud when Julia became the second holder of our Award. She was a wonderful writer and a quite extraordinary ambassador for writing.’ In 2005 she lost a long battle with cancer.

Her published work includes: a collection of short stories, Bloodlines (Panurge); two novels, Crocodile Soup and The Taxi Driver’s Daughter (Penguin); and two collections of poetry, Sudden Collapses in Public Places and Apology for Absence (Arc). A new edition of her poetry, Indelible, Miraculous: Collected Poems, was published by Arc in 2015. With Cynthia Fuller she edited The Poetry Cure (Bloodaxe Books/Newcastle University, 2005), an anthology about illness and health. Her work for theatre and radio was collected in Eating the Elephant and Other Plays (New Writing North).