Originally from River Hill in rural west Kent, David Bateman came to Liverpool via Middlesbrough and Leasowe. Having had a severe stutter as a child and teenager, he finally had successful speech therapy in Liverpool in 1980, and has since performed his poetry widely, winning numerous poetry slams and competitions, including the Liverpool Poetry Slam Championship 2007. As well as poetry, he writes stories and occasional scripts and articles, and since 1998 he has been self-employed as a writer, earning his living from a combination of publications, performance and creative writing tutoring, the latter including much work in mental health day centres. His poetry for children has appeared in over 20 anthologies. His solo poetry publications are The Ideal God Competition (Reprobate 1989), From Jellybeans To Reprobation (Hybrid 1996), Curse Of The Killer Hedge (Iron 1996) and A Homage To Me (Driftwood 2003). He also edited the anthology, The Dead Good Poets Society: The Book (Headland 2005). Taken from https://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/davidbateman
