Virginia Betts
Genres
Virginia is a writer, tutor and actor. She graduated from Essex University, (UK) with a degree in Literature, and later gained a postgraduate degree in teaching English. She is also LAMDA trained. She taught English and Drama to A level for 15 years, then in 2013 she set up a tuition business, Results Tutoring, in Ipswich. She is a passionate advocate for neuro-diversity, particularly as she is autistic, which she discovered late in life at the age of 45. She has contributed several articles to the National Autistic Society Magazine, Spectrum, and Your Autism. She made her publishing debut in The Weird and Whatnot, (July 2019) with her short story, The Rented Room. Following this, a poem, An Afternoon Walk, was published in the September 2019 volume of Acumen Literary Journal, which has shortlisted more poems for 2022. She has since had around 25 poems either published in print or online, (Acumen; Minerva Rising, Breath and Shadow; Pure Slush). She was shortlisted for The Latin Programme’s inaugural poetry prize with ‘Lost Property,’ which was published on March 4th 2021, and subsequently published in print in a ‘Poetry Soup’ anthology. She recently collaborated in writing a professional theatre production, Lullaby, for Hightide Theatre Company, with the Wolsey Theatre, for which she also wrote the music, contributed to sound and lighting, and song lyrics. She is a regular guest on BBC Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex radio shows and her work has been regularly broadcast since 2020. She has also appeared in a play for the Suffolk Poetry Society in 2022, and is a member of Troop and the Neurodelicious Launch Pad, with scheduled appearances in Autumn 2022. Virginia is working on a novel and is also publishing a collection of poetry, Tourist to the Sun, in Summer 2022. Her collection of short stories, The Camera Obscure, is released June 2022. Virginia has been shortlisted for the Felixstowe Book Festival’s short story Prize 2022. The written word creates a visceral sensation in Virginia; writing is her preferred method of emotional expression, and stories often come to her in dreams.
