Cheryl Martin is Co-Artistic Director of Commonword, the Manchester-based writing development organisation which provides opportunities for new and aspiring writers to develop their talent and potential. It includes Cultureword, established in 1986 as a centre for Black creative writing in the North West of England, achieving national renown for discovering, developing and promoting Asian, African Caribbean and Chinese writers. 

Cheryl is an acclaimed writer, director and performer. Her solo show One Woman, R&D-commissioned by Made at HOME, received an Unlimited Wellcome Collection Partnership Award. Rent Party, co-written with Darren Pritchard, was Sheffield Crucible’s 2017 alternative Christmas show, and received five-star reviews in The Stage, Gay Times and Gay UK. She was commissioned by Contact Theatre, Manchester to write a new work on HIV, I Am Because We Are.

Her solo stage show Alaska featured twice at Contact’s Flying Solo Festival before a national tour including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Who Wants To Live Forever? premiered at HOME Manchester’s PUSH Festival, and toured nationally.

Her curation and directorial credits include: Guest Curator: Homotopia (the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ festival) in Liverpool; Co-Artistic Director: Manchester’s Black Gold Arts Festival; Associate Director: Contact Theatre, Manchester; Director-in-Residence: Traverse, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and Community Arts Northwest’s immersive refugee shows Another Country, Heart’s Core, and Rule 35 (all at Z-Arts, Manchester).

She has won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award, a Lloyd’s Regional Award, and been short-listed for the Polari Prize for her debut poetry collection. 

Cheryl’s website: www.cherylmartin.net