Jo Mazelis

Jo Mazelis is a novelist, short story writer, poet, photographer and essayist who was born and educated in Swansea, where she currently lives with her husband, the historian, Mark Matthews. She worked for many years as a freelance photographer, designer and illustrator in London. Her photographs have appeared on the jackets of many books and in a variety of publications from NME and Spare Rib to The Lonely Crowd. She has photographed Tilda Swinton, PD James, Kathy Acker, Nan Goldin and Miranda Richardson amongst many other leading artists, writers and actors. Her photographic work has also been exhibited at Camerawork, London, The Pontardawe Arts Centre, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Dylan Thomas Centre.

Jo has won prizes in The Rhys Davies, Allen Raine and PenFro short story competitions. Her stories have appeared in many publications and several have been broadcast on Radio Four. Her first collection of stories Diving Girls (Parthian, 2002) was short-listed for The Commonwealth Best First Book and Welsh Book of the Year. Her second book, Circle Games (Parthian, 2005) was long-listed for Welsh Book of the Year.  Her debut novel Significance (Seren, 2014) won The Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize in 2015. Her third collection of short stories Ritual, 1969 (Seren, 2016) was long-listed for the Edge Hill University Award.