Hello!

Thank you for visiting tessaditner.com. I write fiction (comedy & satire mostly) and non fiction (journalism & lectures) and below you can find my writing C.V. I am also the city of Portsmouth’s Literature Worker. My job involves re-launching the Portsmouth Writers’ Hub, organising monthly events for the Hub, programming inspiring events that complement other activities in the city and working with New Writing South’s team to seek out and explore new opportunities for creative writers. Join the Hub facebook group to stay in the loop with upcoming events: facebook.com/groups/portsmouthwritershub/

Get in touch! Via Twitter @TessaDitner or by email: tessa@newwritingsouth.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

PUBLICITY IMAGE

Below is a rights cleared low resolution publicity photo, please email culturekiddo@gmail.com for a wider selection or higher resolution.

Fiction

Books

• Octomorphosis – The Little Book of Unrealist Stories inspired by the art of Jon Everitt – Contributing Editor.
• Portsmouth Fairy Tales for Grown Ups. Contributing Editor. Applied and received Grant for the Arts from Arts Council England. [facebook.com/portsmouthfairytales] Out now in ebook or paperback

Short Stories

• Irukandji Roulette – travel writing short story featured in the short story collection Day of the Dead and performed at ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’ & ‘Premature Articulation’ [two events for Portsmouth BookFest 2016]
• Christmas cranberries, ainsley-ts and a wooden fork – erotic short story for Skin Two Magazine
• The Meat Market – short story read out at Brixton Bookjam
• Lost in Chefchaouen – travel writing short story read at Spark London
• The Hardware Store – short story read at The Erotic Book Club [bokship.com]
• Horse Riding with a Dominatrix – Pop-Up Literary Salon [Evening compere and reading at Club Pedestal, in the crawling zone]
• Flash Fiction – Open Pen ‘War of the Words’ [Hackney, London, OpenPen.co.uk]

Blog

• CultureKiddo.blogspot.co.uk

 TV

• The Warehouse Co-written pilot episode for the BBC Trans Comedy Award competition with Beth Granville

 Journalism

• ‘Portsmouth, The Corsetry Capital: Force for Feminism or Whiff of Desperation?’ Star & Crescent, UK
• ‘London and the Grotesque’ World Literature Today, USA
• ‘The Coral Rangers.’ Sport Diving Magazine, Australia
• ‘An art dealer’s perspective: Rene Gimpel on Hirst vs. Hockney, Tracey Emin & grown up art’ CultureKiddo
• ‘Walking with the Wounded, Private JacoVan Gass on why he’s not taking a gold fish to the North Pole’ Playgirl UK
• ‘Duchess of Cornwall to be Figurehead of English Wine’ Decanter
• World Wine Award Quiz (Alsace + Chardonnay + Champagne + Australia) Decanter
• ‘Fetish Fashion vs. Haute Couture’ Von Gutenberg Blog
• ‘London’s Luxury Escapism’ Murooj Magazine
• ‘Enrique Former of Marques de Caceres’ Decanter
• ‘Notting Hill’ LateXtra Magazine
• ‘James Haskell, Naked on the Roof’ Playgirl Magazine UK
• Les Dieux du Stade Playgirl Magazine UK
• Interview with Lemar Playgirl Magazine UK
• ‘The Arvon Foundation & writing the novel’ CultureKiddo
• Q&A with Aita Ighodaro author of Sin Tropez, Playgirl Magazine UK
• Interview with Victoria Fox author of Hollywood Sinners, Playgirl Magazine UK
• ‘French Laundry Pops up in London’ Decanter
• ‘Ben Eine & A Rebel’s Career Path’ Playgirl Magazine UK
• ‘Eating your way to homesickness’ International Association for Literary Journalism
• ‘Helen’s Typhoon’ Playgirl Magazine UK
• ‘Why we launched Playgirl in the UK’ InPublishing
• ‘Impure London’ Quintessentially Magazine
• ‘Men are thieving our Corsets’ (comedy column) Skin Two Magazine
• ‘Rise of the Barbie Doms’(comedy column) Skin Two Issue 62
• Interview with Abigail Greydanus, Latex Designer from LA, Skin Two Issue 62
• ‘I’m not a politician!’ Drag Queen Lilley White, CultureKiddo
• ‘Wigs, Superman and Rope Bondage; undercover at the London Fetish Weekend Ball’ Skin Two Magazine
• ‘Winter Scents’ Murooj Magazine
• ‘Shoes to Die For’ Stuart Thom, Footwear Designer of Ainsley-T from Milan, Skin Two Magazine
• Interview with Louis Fleischauer, film and costume leatherwear designer AMF Korsets from Berlin, Skin Two Magazine
• ‘The Erotic Chair’ Skin Two Magazine

Plays

• ‘A Day, A Life’ – Staged at the Corpus Christi Cambridge Playroom
• ‘Clean Conscience’ – Entered into Chesil Theatre 150th Anniversary 10X10
• ‘Beyond a Fairy Tale’ – Staged at the Cambridge Playroom
• ‘When Three Strings Make a Rope’ – shortlisted for the London Writing Competition.

Workshops/Conferences/Lectures

• ‘Grotesque Laughter since the Death of God’ The British Institute of Humour Studies Conference, Surrey University.
• Erotic Literature Workshop for Portsmouth University, Creative Writing Department
• Speaker at Portsmouth University’s lecture on Publishing, Marketing and Making your work part of literary festivals.
•  ‘Sir Walter Raleigh, Kanye West, Lonely Planet and Nelson Mandela’ comparative lecture on love poetry, travel writing and speech writing from the scaffold/courtoom, for Surrey University English Lit undergrads.
• ‘Dickens’ Concepts’ for the London Language Centre
• ‘Literature’s Marmite’ writing workshop for the Lovedean writers on how to avoid writing Bad Sex Award worthy scenes.
• ‘The Art of Blogging’ workshop for Portsmouth University undergraduates.
• ‘Alexander McQueen & an introduction to British Fashion’ London Language Centre

 Podcasts

• Express FM 97.3 Culture Show with James Sandy & Dave Allen.  Features the writers Tessa Ditner, Matt Wingett and Diana Bretherick, broadcast Monday 27th October 2014, available as a podcast from http://kingofthebuttons.podbean.com/e/towards-the-point-series-4-show-2/

Art Reviews

• ‘Powers of Manipulation’ Tim Shaw (solo exhibition) at the Riflemaker Gallery, London (as my pseudonym Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• ‘Eggs & Keys on Toast’ David Shrigley (solo exhibition) at the Hayward Gallery, London (as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• ‘Impress Me’ She Doesn’t Care at the EB&Flow Gallery, London (as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• ‘Eye Sweeteners’ Remote Control at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• ‘Satellite String’ Bertille Bak (solo exhibition) at Nettie Horn Gallery, London (as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• ‘Endangered Knowledge’ Palm Leaf Architecture of the United Arab Emirates at The Royal Geographical Society, London (as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo) www.aqnb.com
• Selling Sex at SHOWStudio, London skintwo.co.uk
• Art Erotica at Cork Street Open Exhibition, London culturekiddo.blogspot.co.uk
• Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasure, 33 Portland Place, London
• Art at The Last Tuesday Society

Writing Competition Judging

Judge, Portsmouth Short Story Competition 2016 on the theme: 1976

Theatre & Film Reviews

• Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic, London
• ‘Shakespeare Milkshake’ at Arts Theatre, London
• Madame Bovary at The Rosemary Branch Theatre, London
• The Shoemaker’s Holiday at The Actor’s Church, Covent Garden, London
• Du Goudron et des Plumes at the Barbican, London
• House of Tolerance at Ciné Lumière, Institut français, London
• The People Pile Studio Event by The People Pile at London Studio Centre, London
• Gruntlers at Azerbaijani House, London
• Nuit Demonia at The Moulin Rouge, Paris
• Scented by Darkbloom Theatre at the Frameless Gallery, London
• Paper Wings by the Beehive Theatre Company at The Space, London
• Life’s a Drag featuring Drag Queen Cookie at Cellar Door, London
• ‘The Tarantino of Choirs’ Our Lady J at Soho Theatre, London
• Orpheus in the Underworld by the Royal College of Music at the Britten Theatre, London
• Public Interest by Clever by Clever at the New Diorama Theatre, London
• The Biting Point at Theatre 503, London
• Kojo at Soho Theatre, London
• Baadinya at The Space, London
• Pawnography at The Rose Theatre, London
• More or Lesque/Major Suttle-Tease at Volupte Lounge, London
• Agent Lynch and Friends at Studio 64, London
• Brad Channer at Jewel Bar, London
• ‘A jackal and a diva on stage’ Pistol & Jack at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London
• The Folly Mixtures at Volupte Lounge, London
• Better than Sex by Robert B Suda, London
• Wam Bam Club at Cafe de Paris, London
• Hocus Pocus at Proud Cabaret, London
• Miranda at Tara Arts, London
• London Alternative Fringe Festival Launch Show at Madame Jojos, London
• East End Cabaret at Carnivalesque, London