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Author Biography

Peter Cowlam, author. Peter Cowlam studied Performance Writing at Dartington College of Arts. He has had plays performed at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, and by the Dartington Playgoers, and has had readings at the State University of New York and for the Theatre West 100 Plays project in Bristol, England.

As a novelist, he has won the Quagga Prize for Literary Fiction twice, most recently in 2018 for his novel New King Palmers, which is at the intersection of old, crumbling empires and new, digital agglomerates.

His other Quagga award was in 2015 for his novel Who's Afraid of the Booker Prize?, a satire on literary celebrity. The Quagga Prize is awarded for independently published works of fiction.

He has had four collections of haikuesque poems published (one in collaboration with Kathryn Kopple), also independently, and as poet and writer of fiction his work has appeared on the Fairlight Books website, in En Bloc, The Battersea Review, The San Francisco Review of Books, The Blue Nib, The Galway Review, Easy Street, Literary Matters, Eunoia Review, The Brown Boat, Valparaiso Fiction Review, The Four Quarters Magazine, Ink, Sweat & Tears, The Liberal, the Criterion, and others.

Peter Cowlam is the Literary Editor at Ars Notoria (arsnotoria.com). He can be contacted at petercowlam@gmail.com

Charles Johnston, narrator. With a breadth of repertoire ranging from Wagner to Britten, British baritone Charles Johnston has performed with many leading companies both in the UK and abroad.

Described as “immaculate” and the “Jewel in the crown” (The Times) for his portrayal of Sir John Falstaff for Mid Wales Opera, Johnston’s previous role highlights include the title role in Rigoletto, Giorgio Germont & Marquis d’Obigny La Traviata, Montano Otello, Narumov The Queen of Spades, Dr Kolenaty The Makropulos Case, Nikitich Boris Godunov, The Cardinal The Duchess of Malfi, Marquis d’Obigny La Traviata, 1st SS Officer The Passenger, The Guide Death in Venice (English National Opera); The Guide Death in Venice (La Scala, Milan; La Monnaie; De Nederlandse Opera; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam); The Traveller cover Death in Venice (Teatro Real, Madrid); Mr Gedge Albert Herring, Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Garibaldo Rodelinda, Talbot Maria Stuarda, and Scarpia Tosca (English Touring Opera); Don Alfonso Così fan tutte, Eisenstein Die Fledermaus, Marco Gianni Schicchi, Il Pedone La Wally, and Michonnet Adriana Lecouvreur (Opera Holland Park); Giorgio Germont La Traviata (Welsh National Opera); Scarpia Tosca & Germont La Traviata (RTÉ Concert Orchestra; Lyric Opera Dublin); the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Haddo House); Benoît/Alcindoro La bohème (Dorset Opera Festival); The King Eight songs for a mad King (Electrostatic Festival); and the role of the Father/Sir Lancelot in Lynne Plowman’s Gwyneth and the Green Night (Music Theatre Wales/Royal Opera House).

Charles has performed Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande (l’Opéra de Chambre de Paris); Garibaldo Rodelinda (BAM, New York); the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth (Singapore); Choregos in Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy, Roderick/Sam in Hindemith’s The long Christmas dinner, Smirnov in William Walton’s The Bear, and Blazes The Lighthouse (Les Jardins Musicaux festival, Switzerland); and Scarpia Tosca (Greece).

Copyright Information

Copyright (c) 2023, Peter Cowlam, Charles Johnston.