Stephanie Zia

Blackbird Digital Books came about by chance. In 2009, I published my Guardian cleaning tips, Clean - Organic Household Tips That Don't Cost the Earth as an ebook in the US. Soon after, the ex-Transworld author Susie Kelly, got in touch. She wondered if I’d be interested in e-publishing her travel book The Valley Of Heaven and Hell - Cycling in the Shadow of Marie-Antoinette. Like so many, I laughed and cried and fell in love with her writing. Many more wonderful Kelly books followed, some new, some rights-reverted from Transworld. More authors began to get in touch, and, of course, the ebook revolution went into full swing. At the beginning of 2015 we began transferring our titles from digital only to mainstream bookstore/library print publishing. I now divide my time between publishing, writing and teaching creative writing at Creative Writing Workshops London. 

Throughout the 1980s I was a production assistant, researcher, and, later, director, on BBC TV arts documentaries. My debut film as a writer/director, 10 x 10 Applause, about why people clap, was transmitted on BBC2 5 times and featured on BBC Radio 4’s Pick Of The Week. Applause has since been shown at several arts centre screenings, including  Made In Bristol  (Watershed, June 2012), a celebration of the strength and diversity of Bristol’s music scene. 

I’ve had 2 commercial fiction novels published by Piatkus and 2 non-fiction books published by Hamlyn. I've written for a variety of magazines and newspapers including The Sunday Times, Woman’s Own and Which? My Guardian Weekend magazine cleaning column ran for 5 years. Books currently available are The Smile in the Garden with the Starfish, a short story collection, and The Widow's To Do List a romcom for the older woman, set in Strawberry Hill and Hydra, Greece. 

Twitter: @stephaniezia