Allie Byrne, now Allie Esiri, read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. She is a former English stage, film, and television actress, now a writer. She created iF Poems, an educational poetry app, the accompanying hardback anthology iF: A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility, published by Canongate and The Love Book, both an interactive literary app on iOS and Android and a hardback book, published by Square Peg, Random House, of best-loved poems, quotations, and letters on the theme of love. She has hosted poetry events at The Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, The Sunday Times Education Festival and The Oldie Soho Literary Festival. In 2014 she is on the Advisory Board and is Festival Poetry Advisor to The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival and will launch her new series of events: Allie Esiri Poetry Corner with readings by amongst others, Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory. She is a member, alongside Antonia Byatt and Carol Ann Duffy, of the Poetry Book Society UK Children's Poetry Summit. 

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