Crime fiction and chick lit are the two contemporary genres that explore the experience of work and the challenges of the workplace really well. In more general fiction, it is often an area of a character's life that is ignored, in spite of the fact that many people gain so much of their identity from their employment. In this month's focus, four writers take this arena and delve into the working life in detail, exploring what is interesting, dull, dangerous, exciting and unsettling about working lives.

Jane McKie's poem, 'Tin Quartet', is a visually stimulating account of the gruelling yet somewhat magical jobs that no longer exist. Set in a tin mine, a now defunct work place, her poem tells the story of a harsh and uncomfortable occupation, and a life that is unfamiliar to contemporary readers.

Catherine Smith's poem, 'Prayers', explores how work can take on a different meaning depending upon the experience of individuals. Desperation, hope and power are all approached with a clarity of expression that is both eloquent and disturbing.

In her short story, 'The Secret Life of Dads', Zoë Strachan's narrator takes on the role of detective as she enters her father's workplace in search of clues to the man she doesn't really know. Vivid and compelling, Strachan's tale is a moving account of work and identity as well as an examination of how industry can shape a country.

Gerard Woodward's poignant short story 'Seagulls' is an account of one man's attempts to make his way in the world of puppetry. Power struggles, longing and disappointment all have their part to play as he attempts to negotiate his way through this surprisingly cut-throat existence.

Gerard Woodward

Gerard Woodward is a poet and novelist. His poetry has twice been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, while his novels have been shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and the Booker Prize. He teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University and lives in Somerset. His third novel, A Curious Earth, was published in 2007.

Photograph © Charles Hopkinson

Catherine Smith

Catherine Smith's pamphlet, The New Bride, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best First Collection 2001. Her first full collection, The Butcher's Hands, was a PBS recommendation. In 2004 she was voted both one of the top ten women poets to have emerged in the past ten years by Mslexia magazine and one of the top twenty 'Next Generation' poets by the PBS/Arts Council. Her latest collection, Lip, was published by Smith Doorstop in 2007.

Photograph © Derek Adams

Jane McKie

Jane McKie, originally from Sussex, now lives in Scotland with her husband and daughter. She has had poems published in Island Magazine, New Writing Scotland, The Red Wheelbarrow, Other Poetry and Pennine Platform, and her first collection, Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press), won the first book category of the Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book Awards 2008.

Zoë Strachan

Zoë Strachan was born in 1975 and grew up in Kilmarnock, Scotland. Her novels Spin Cycle and Negative Space, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, are published by Picador. She has also written for radio and contributed short stories and extensive journalism to various magazines and newspapers, and is currently working on her third novel, Play Dead.

Photograph © Picador

Illustration © Maurizio Marmorato