AKA Rosie Lugosi

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write for joy and read for pleasure. For me, the two can’t be separated. A writer who doesn’t read? Naah.

I’ve written two novels: the first patchy in the way of first novels. The second has had the thumbs-up from my agent and I am currently being mentored on my third.

I perform in alternative cabaret / burlesque as Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen. I’ve been enjoying her gender-bending mayhem for eight years now, and always get fired up from the thrill of performance.

Biography

Born in London to a runaway teenager, and adopted by a wonderfully ordinary if rather bemused mum and dad, Rosie has always been a cuckoo in the nest. At 18 she escaped the south west of England for Leeds and sang in cult goth band The March Violets. She then lived in Sudan, teaching English for two years, before settling on Manchester, the only place she’s ever felt at home.

Rosie has worked as a cleaner, teacher, co-ordinator of the Manchester Survivors Project, club promoter, performer, and gets up every morning to write. She has performed across the UK, Europe, the USA, and has received two writing awards from ACE. In 2007 she received a bursary from The Literary Consultancy for a year’s writing mentoring.

To view or download more pictures visit Flickr.

Awards and Residences

• 2007-8 Writer in residence, Marsh Mill, Thornton-in-Cleveleys,
• 2007 The People’s Café Poetry Award, New York
• 2007 Apples and Snakes, Poet of the Month
• 2006 Cultural Export Bursary, Arts Council of England
• 2006 Poetry Kit, Poet of the Year, runner-up
• 2005 Writer’s Bursary, Arts Council of England
• 2004 Gaylactic Spectrum Award (nominee), for Terminus, Necrologue
• 2004 BBC Radio 4, Ear Candy
• 2003 Lambda Award for Terminus, Necrologue
• 2002 Diva Awards, Solo Performance Artist of the Year
• 2001 Lambda Award for You’ll Do, Diva Book of Short Stories
• 2001 Erotic Oscar, Performance Artist of the Year
• 2001 Here Be Tygers, Focus on Fiction Competition
• Host, Alpha to Omega Novel Competition, runner up
• 2000 The Pink Ladies’ Performance Project, Year of the Artist Commission
• 1999 Nature’s Favourite, Commonword Novel Competition – shortlisted
• 1997 Tears for Souvenirs, Queer Words Writing Prize
• 1997 National Performance Poetry Competition – runner up

Publications

Short Story Anthologies:

• Look Both Ways, The Art of Tying Knots (Flax Books, 2007)
• My Dear, Bitch Lit, (Crocus Books, 2006)
• Helter Skelter, Flick Lit (SM Dykes Manchester Press. 2005)
• A Piece of her Night, Va Va Voom (Millivres Press, 2004)
• Terminus, Necrologue (Diva Books, 2003)
• The Purple Wallpaper, Groundswell (Diva Books, 2002)
• file>>corrupted, City Secrets (Crocus Press, 2002)
• Here Be Tygers, Cadenza (QWF, 2001)
• You’ll Do, The Diva Book of Short Stories (Diva Books, 2000)
• The Bones of Venice, In Blood We Trust (Dark Angel Press, 1999)
• Tears for Souvenirs, Queer Words (Premiere Cymru, 1997)

Poetry (solo collections):

• Creatures of the Night (purpleprosepress, 2003)
• Coming out at Night (purpleprosepress, 2000)
• Hell and Eden (Dagger Press, 1997)

Non-Fiction:

• Coming Out at Night, Acts of Passion (Haworth Press, NY, 1997)
• Magazines that Rosie has appeared in (1997-2007) include:
• Mslexia, Flux, Queer Soul, The Big Issue, Citizen 32, Chronicles, Rattapallax, Diva, Never Bury Poetry, Trouble and Strife, Soup Dragon, Ballista, The Ugly Tree.

Workshop Feedback

I get a real kick out of facilitating workshops: they are an exciting part of the creative process. I love watching people find the confidence and self-belief they’d forgotten they had. Workshops are a reminder that I am open to learning, too.
Rosie is totally reliable and always the professional – very well-organised and adept at judging her audience. Rosie is a good actress as well as a fine writer, so her readings always have dramatic conviction: she is very funny and completely takes her audience with her. I think her extraordinarily talented as a writer, whilst also being very accessible. (Those two gifts do not always go together…)

She is a great communicator.
Libby Tempest, Cultural Services Manager, Manchester Library and Information Service. 2006
Thanks so much, Rosie, for coming to speak to my class. What a wonderful vision of a queer life you can them as a possibility!
Minnie Bruce Pratt, Lecturer in Queer Studies, Syracuse University, 2006
Not only was [the workshop] enjoyable, I found it empowering personally for my mental health – if not liberating! I’ve never written before – this shows me that I can.
Manchester Survivors Project, 2004
Rosie Lugosi started our series of performance poetry workshops two weeks ago with a fantastic workshop where people explored ways to bring poetry to life for an audience. Everyone was buzzing with enthusiasm afterwards and dying to get on a stage.
Apples and Snakes, 2003

Reviews

Relationships are a rich mine of material: in Rosie Lugosi’s ‘The New Semaphore’ a fearful partner tries to interpret the new meaning behind the old signals: “Hands making the right/moves, but worked by pulley; invisible ropes.” Varied and inventive in style and subject matter.
Nicola Mostyn – Review of ‘Transparency’, City Life, 2005
Manchester’s very own undead performer extraordinaire.
The Times, 2004
Rosie Lugosi … is here to provoke our thoughts and laughter, and remind us that being gay doesn’t have to relegate you to speculation over the latest designer label. All power to her.
PS, 2004
A truly unique performer and one that straddles the literature, SM and queercore scenes with ease.
Designer Magazine, 2004
I think we can safely say the town has never seen anything like this before. A PVC-clad, five inch heeled, crop-wielding bisexual vampire. Thankfully Rosie Lugosi’s outlandish appearance was matched by the entertainment provided… The set had the audience roaring with laughter. How could they not with ditties that corrupted the originals so incredibly?’
Ledbury Poetry Festival, 2003
Rosie Lugosi’s hugely entertaining, tough-talking ‘Two Queens’ was a particularly satisfying read… The image of the Virgin Queen and Nefertiti clubbing in the Gay Village is great fun, but the poem works also as a celebration of female sexuality, of power and liberation.
Carol Ann Duffy, 2001
Her short story ‘Here be Tygers’ had me gripped. Mixing gothic vampyrism, freakish otherness and notions of disability made for a heady mix: all in all, powerful writing.
Northern Disability Arts Forum, 2001
A flamboyant hostess. Six feet of immaculate PVC… Rosie’s superior attitude and school-marm promises to see us after the show repeatedly win her fans… she’s never had anything but squeals of delight from her audience. Terrifyingly terrific!’
The Pink Paper, 2001
A national treasure.
Dead Good Poets Society, Liverpool, 2001

Listen to Rosie read from Look Both Ways, which is in The Art of Tying Knots, flax003

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Personal Reflection

I’ve always found myself writing about outsiders; whoever they might be. I’m interested in characters who won’t (or can’t) squeeze into the one-size-fits-all templates they have been provided, and the friction that occurs when they try. I know that comes from always having been an outsider myself. I want to find out what’s going on in there. And celebrate it, proud in the face of the overwhelming sludge of ‘normality’.

Rosie Lugosi is an extreme version of me. I enjoy stepping into her enormously, but I wouldn’t want to be her all of the time: she’s hard work. Besides, why should I restrict myself to one form? I love writing as much I do performing. And now I have the confidence to describe myself as a writer.

I intend to keep turning up at the page, to keep the flow going, and watch out for log-jams building up. Now that my agent is happy with my novel, I want to see it ‘out there’. And crack on with the next.