Donna Kemp was born in Leeds, raised in Manchester and Hereford, to an Irish mother and a father who was a Londoner. Donna has long since been sustained by the dual practices of reading and writing as inquiry. She is a retired academic who
writes diaries, poetry, short stories and essays. She won the University of Bristol Centenary Scholarship to undertake, Write To Life, a Narrative Inquiry Into Recovery from Trauma. Jane Speedy was her tutor and introduced Donna to the Centre's work.