The Team

About Helen McClory

Helen McClory is an award-winning writer raised between Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye, specialising primarily in flash fiction, hybrid pieces, short stories and novels.

In 2010 she received a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. In 2015 her debut fiction collection, On the Edges of Vision, won the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award. A novel, Flesh of the Peach, followed in 2017. Her second collection Mayhem & Death was published in 2018, along with The Goldblum Variations, a book of microfictions on Jeff Goldblum. Her fiction, poetry and essays have been widely published in places such as Refinery29, Gulf Coast, the Denver Quarterly, Gorse, The Toast and 3:AM Magazine, while she has been interviewed in The Times, The Herald and The Skinny, among other places. She has appeared at AyeWrite and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Herald described her as “Clearly one of the best new writers to have emerged in Scotland in the last few years.” Margaret Atwood called her stories “Shiny dark liquorice mind candy: nothing quite like them”.

The recipient of funded residencies at The Banff Centre Canada and Kaaysa, Brazil, Helen is interested in literary explorations of place, identity, gender and form. Experimentation and playfulness characterise her approach to creative writing, both as a practitioner and a teacher. She also crowd-funded and organised a book tour around the eastern US for her first book, and is committed to a DIY approach to the writing life. She works as a mentor for London-based writing organisation The RiffRaff. She is represented by Jenny Brown of the Jenny Brown Agency.

About Carlo

Carlo Bertoncini - House owner and Co-founder of Write Toscana.

Carlo’s family are originally from this beautiful Garfagnana region of Tuscany where his Grandfather, Alfredo Bertoncini, chose to build his family home.

Alfredo Bertoncini was knighted by the Italian Government not long before his death for his services to the country. The inspiration that he and his home has given others over the years was the original impetus for Write Toscana; the food, wine, history and culture of Tuscany make it one of the world’s most sought-after locations.

He devotes all his professional background to making Write Toscana the best experience it can be – the unique opportunity to be coached by the talents of Dr. Helen McClory in the beautiful surroundings of Tuscany, forming either the foundation of their writing career or a key step on their creative journey.