Nick Hornby (Chair and Co-Founder)

Nick Hornby is the author of six novels, High Fidelity, About a Boy, How To Be Good, A Long Way Down, Slam and Juliet, Naked. He has also written three works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch, 31 Songs and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. He wrote the screenplay for the film An Education, for which he was recently nominated for an Oscar. Nick helped to set up autism education charity TreeHouse in 1997, along with other parents who had struggled to find an appropriate educational setting for their children. Nick was a journalist and an English teacher before becoming a writer.

Joe Dunthorne

Joe was born and brought up in Swansea. His debut novel, Submarine won the Curtis Brown prize and has been translated in to ten languages. A film of the book is being directed by Richard Ayoade and produced by Warp Films. As of 2008, he became a member of the poetry collective, Aisle 16. He is a striker for the England Writers’ Football Team.

Yemisi Blake

Yemisi is a writer, photographer and blogger. He has been commissioned to write poetry by The Wellcome Trust and Tate Britain, and has performed in venues including The Roundhouse, Natural History Museum and Royal Festival Hall. Yemisi is currently Creative Mentor on young people’s projects at Southbank Centre.www.yemisiblake.co.uk

Naseem Khan

Naseem is Chair of the local community charity, Friends of Arnold Circus, shortlisted this year for a Guardian Small Charities Award. She has a long track-record in arts commentating (www.naseemkhan.com) and was awarded the OBE in 1999 for her work in cultural diversity policy.

Joe Hallgarten

Joe is Director of Cultural Programmes for Creativity Culture and Education (CCE). When Joe was seven, he wanted to be a poet in the summer and a footballer in the winter. He hasn’t quite given up on either ambition, but since then he has been a primary school teacher, head of the Education Team then Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and Learning Director for Creative Partnerships.

Sarah Morrison

Sarah is a freelance journalist who has written for national papers, journals and websites in both the UK and America. With much of her writing focused on access to education, she hopes that the Ministry of Stories will offer an imaginative space for both the young in age and young at heart.

Wendy Smithers

Wendy Smithers is a founder and co-director of arts development practice the hub. Formed in 2002, it provides bespoke advice through a range of business planning, fundraising, mentoring and skills development programmes. Previous to the hub, Wendy was Development Manager at the Barbican and worked in the sponsorship sales team at Classic FM.

Alice King-Farlow

Alice has worked for the past fourteen years to promote children’s and young people’s involvement in the creative and performing arts. She began her career at Opera North before becoming head of English National Opera’s education programme. Alice is now director of Discover at the National Theatre.

Edouard de Saint Pierre

Of both Swiss and French nationality, Edouard grew up in Geneva where he studied International Relations. His interest in children’s education led him to do 7 months of care work in an orphanage in Lima,Peru.

Edouard currently works in the CEO Management Office for UBS Wealth Management in London. Using his diverse background and various experiences, he strives to help the Ministry’s monsters take over the world.