Clare Jay’s short stories and poetry have won prizes and appeared in anthologies, and she tutors writing at university level. One of her most powerful memories is of nearly drowning in a turquoise swimming pool in a dream she had when she was three, which was what got her hooked on dream imagery. Her interest in dreams led her to an ongoing exploration of lucid dreaming and the development of dream-based techniques for entering the writer’s trance. Clare’s earliest academic research into lucid dreaming took place while she was studying for her undergraduate degree at Lancaster University. Her Creative Writing PhD with the University of Leeds (2007) focused on the connection between lucid dreaming and the writing process, and she leads ‘Dreaming into writing’ workshops at international conferences and retreats.

Brought up in South Devon, close to Dartmoor, Clare has since lived in Montpellier, Lisbon, Stuttgart and Cádiz, and has travelled extensively in South-East Asia. Fluent in five languages, Clare spends her non-writing time teaching yoga, experimenting with acrylic painting, walking by the sea, and reading novels. She married her husband, Markus, on an Algarve beach and they have a baby daughter. Clare currently divides her time between Totnes in the UK and Cascais in Portugal.

Dartmoor: Clare Jay

Clare’s first novel, Breathing in Colour, initially written as part of her doctoral thesis, is about a mother whose teenaged daughter, who has the sensory condition of synaesthesia, goes missing while backpacking in India. It is published in the UK as part of a two-book deal with Piatkus of the Little, Brown Publishing Group. She is currently writing her second novel, Dreamrunner, which is set in Lisbon and is about the effects of a violent sleep disorder on a family. This will be published in 2010.

Read reviews for Breathing in Colour

Literary agent: Jane Conway-Gordon

Editor: Emma Beswetherick

Publicist: Priya Assanand