Meet the team

Robin Lloyd-Jones: Autumn Voices Founder

Photo of Robin Lloyd-Jones

Robin lives in Helensburgh with his wife Sallie and their cat Orlando. He has lived in Scotland for most of his adult life and has three children and three grandchildren. After a childhood spent in India and the west country of England, he graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Social Anthropology and was a teacher before becoming an Education Adviser in Strathclyde Region. He took early retirement in 1989 to focus on writing. His other main interests have been mountaineering, sea kayaking, photography and chess.

Robin at 89 can confidently claim to have ‘insider knowledge’ about later life! Two of his books – Autumn Voices (PlaySpace Publications, 2018) and The New Frontier (Thunderpoint Publishing, 2019) – are both about people who lead active, creative lives in later life.

Robin was a Tutor in Creative Writing at Glasgow University in the nineties and subsequently served in an executive capacity for the Society of Authors in Scotland (SOAiS) and Scottish PEN International. He is also an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, non-fiction and radio drama. His other publications include:

  • Gods of the Lost Crossroads (Rymour, 2023)
  • The Sweet Especial Scene (Two Ravens Press, 2014)
  • The Sunlit Summit (Sandstone Press, 2013)
  • Argonauts of the Western Isles (updated edition, Whittles Publishing, 2008)
  • Red Fox Running (Andersen Press, 2007)
  • Fallen Pieces of the Moon (Whittles Publishing, 2006)
  • Fallen Angels (Canongate, 1992)

Robin stepped back from day-to-day involvement with Autumn Voices in 2022, but we remain grateful for his initiative and vision.


Ken Cockburn: Projects

Ken Cockburn is a poet and translator based in Edinburgh. After working at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, he has freelanced for twenty years, presenting poetry in schools, colleges, care and community settings, and collaborating with visual artists on book, exhibition and public art projects. Since 2019 he has worked as Creative Projects Manager with Lapidus Scotland.

His most recent collection is Floating the Woods (Luath, 2018). He also runs Edinburgh Poetry Tours – guided walks with readings of poems in the city’s Old Town. The pamphlet, Edinburgh: poems and translations, appeared from The Caseroom Press in summer 2021.

He joined Autumn Voices in 2021, oversees its various projects.


Ashley Stein: Marketing & Social Media

Ashley Stein is a writer, musician, and feminist activist. Since 2011, Ashley has worked across the creative industries taking on many different roles including working as an event’s organiser, band manager, journal editor, music journalist, gig promoter, and as an administrator for various arts and educational organisations. Alongside working within the arts, Ashley has spent the last few years studying in Edinburgh. After achieving a Masters in Creative Writing from Napier University in 2019, Ashley has just graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Musicology. Ashley’s academic background has shaped her creative output, turning her into an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores gender, performativity, queer theory, and feminist issues. Her creative work currently consists of singing and playing bass in a feminist punk band, creating electronic music, and writing genre based fiction as well as poetry.

As well as listening obsessively to whatever music has a hold of her at that given moment, Ashley loves reading sci fi, fantasy, detective fiction, graphic novels, sad poetry, and music biographies. You can find her writing songs in her studio, thinking up stories on the bus, watching Star Trek at home, or performing fast and loud music at a venue near you.


Orlando: The Autumn Voices Cat

Actually, I’m boss of the whole show. Being democatically minded, I let the others think they’re running things. I take particular interest in our Mewsletter and in generally catering for the litter-ary purrsuits of our members.

Marmalade is how I like to describe myself, rather than ginger. Other descriptions that apply to me are handsome, brave, clever, modest.

I like sitting on the mat next to the log-burning stove and watching TV, especially in the travel category. Programmes about places like Kathmandu, Catalonia, or Los Gatos in California leave me feline good.

On the creative side, I’m an expert in the ancient Japanese art of Tangcho (unraveling balls of wool and making a beautiful tangled chaos); and also Chinese black and white brush work. There’s nothing more intoxicatingly fulfilling than dabbing your paws in soot and walking across clean white sheets.