Debjani Chatterjee

Debjani Chatterjee is a most inspiring poet, writer and storyteller with over 50 books. Self-employed, she works extensively and enthusiastically with children in schools, community centres, libraries and hospitals. At Sheffield Children's Hospital she set up a Poetry Corridor for the poems written by children during her time as the hospital's Poet-in-residence. She has written picture storybooks for Asian People's Disability Alliance and industrial museums, and edited oral history books, e.g. Who Cares? Reminiscences of Yemeni Carers and Barbed Lines for local community groups like the Carers Centre and Bengali Women's Support Group. A cancer survivor, she founded the Healing Word, a support group using word-based therapies for cancer survivors and carers. A patron of Survivors' Poetry, she mentors poet-survivors of mental illness. She received an MBE in 2008 for services to Literature.