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Yewande Akinse (Adebowale) is a Nigerian poet and author of two collections of poetry. Her books are available to buy on her website.
Simon Alderwick is originally from Surrey, England, and currently lives in Pembrokeshire, Wales. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Magma, Anthropocene, Dust, and Ink Sweat & Tears, among others.
Sandra Aliandy is a writer from Indonesia, now in Vancouver. She’s trying to block off her next section of “alone time.” Her works are found/forthcoming in Daily Drunk, Sledgehammer, the tide rises, and more. Find her @tinycpr.
Wendy Allen has had poems published in Atrium, Re-Side, Northern Gravy, Selcouth Station, and has a Legitimate Snack from Broken Sleep. She is studying Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes.
Ben Ambrazaitis was born and raised in Billingham, Teesside. In this smoggy background he spent most of his teens looking for a hobby without any real success. However, the smog dispersed and he found something that intrigued his creativity – writing. This interest led him to study Creative Writing at York St John University, getting his first job in York working at McDonald’s.
Colin Bancroft has completed a PhD focused on placing Robert Frost as an Ecopoet. He lives in the North Pennines and his pamphlet Impermanence came out with Maytree Press in October 2020.
Amy Bobeda holds an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where she founded Wisdom Body Collective, an artist collective rooted in the sacred feminine. Her work can be read in Humble Pie, Vol 1. Brooklyn, and elsewhere. @AmyBobeda on Twitter.
Petra Bódig (she/her) is an eighteen year old sapphic, originally from Hungary, but currently living in Scotland. Her writing deals with many social concerns, such as xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia, as well as personal issues: mental health, relationships, and her identity as a queer woman.
Dale Booton is a twenty-six year old queer poet from Birmingham. His poetry has been published by Verve in their Diversity anthology, Untitled: Voices, Re-Side, and The Poetry Society. Most recently, his poetry has featured in Ligeia Winter 2020 Issue and on Queerlings.
Helen Bowie (she/they) is a charity worker, writer, and performer based in London. Helen is Editor of tattiezine, a potato themed litmag, and has writing featured or upcoming in streetcake magazine, Untitled: Voices, and Queerlings, among others. Helen writes about carbs, kitschy camp goodness and catastrophizing.
Andy Breckenridge has four poems on The Common Breath blog and four more have recently appeared in the Zoo anthology, published by Dreich. A pamphlet Liquid Air is due to be published soon, also by Dreich. Poems have appeared in the Shoreham Wordfest Anthology, Nutmeg Magazine, and on the Poetry Map of Scotland. Twitter handle: @drbafc.
Al Bristow’s poetry is usually only heard – on stage – while he fronts post-hardcore band, Weaponry. Hailing from Reading, he currently resides in Basingstoke with his wife, Samantha, and daughter, Aubrey.
Josh Brittain is a 31-year-old writer and poet originally born in Torquay, but now lives in York. Josh is studying creative writing at York St. John University. He likes to write creative non-fiction as well as fiction and poetry. His influences include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, and Raymond Chandler. When Josh is not writing, he usually plays video games or guitar or football for Fulford United.
Carl Burkitt likes telling tales. He tells long tales, short tales, silly tales, sad tales, and tells them online, behind a mic, in schools, and on the sofa. His poetry collection, What Does A Baby Think It Is?, was published by Enthusiastic Press in 2020, followed by Big Bad Mike by Dreich in 2021. His debut kids’ collection, Elephants Sleep in Bunk Beds, was published by Beir Bua in 2021.
Sonia Burns is a poet, performer, workshop facilitator and community worker based in the East Midlands. Her debut chapbook, Umbra:philia, was published in November 2021 by the Bearded Badger Publishing Company with the support of Arts Council funding. Her poetry has featured in magazines and anthologies including Ink, Sweat & Tears, 192 magazine, Nottingham DIY Poets zine, Us vs Virus anthology, Acid Bath Publishing’s Travels and Tribulations anthology, Hecate Decay anthology, and Desree's 2023 Empoword anthology.
Grace Burrill is a new poet from Leeds who started her journey into poetry in the lovely city of York. While not being published herself (until now) she was part of the team behind the student-led, non-profit Folk Horror press project – Reaper Press. In her poetry, Grace works with themes of mental health, grief, and nihilism, often using personal experience, hoping to help people feel less alone in their situations. Try to find the beauty in the dark.
David Butler’s second poetry collection, All the Barbaric Glass, was published in 2017 by Doire Press, who are to bring out his third collection, Liffey Sequence, in 2021. His poem “Dockers, 1930” was shortlisted for the Anthony Cronin Award and the Hungry Hill ‘Poetry meets Politics’ Prize. It was highly commended in the Welsh Open Poetry Contest, appearing in print in the Irish working class anthology, The Children of the Nation, and the Welsh journal, Red Poets.
James Callan grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He lives on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand, on a small farm with his wife, Rachel, and his little boy, Finn. Addicted to ritual more than anything, the comfort in habitual, daily routine, he has allowed alcohol to infiltrate these consecutive expectations from time to time, sometimes in stretches as long or longer than a year. His has never been a worst-case scenario, but neither has it been something he feels in complete control of.
F. E. Clark lives in Scotland. She writes, paints, and takes photographs—inspired by nature in all its forms. With a story on the best fifty British and Irish Flash Fiction 2019-2020 list, she is a Pushcart, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions nominee. Website: www.feclark.weebly.com / Twitter: @feclarkart
Wayne Connolly is a short story writer living in the north east of England. His first collection, The Gift, was published by Pontburn Press in January 2023.
Hailing from West Dorset, Jonah Corren is a poet and singer-songwriter. His work has been published in Ink Sweat & Tears, SPOONFEED, and others. He is an alumnus of BBC New Creatives (2019/20) and The Apples & Snakes Writing Room (2021) as well as an assistant editor at Seek Poetry.
Charlotte Cosgrove is a poet and english lecturer from Liverpool, England. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, both in print and online. She is the founding editor of Rough Diamond Poetry Journal. Her first book, Silent Violence with Petals, is available now with Kelsay Books.
Colin Dardis is a neurodivergent writer, editor, and sound artist from Northern Ireland. His most recent book is All This Light In Which To See The Dead: Pandemic Journals 2020-21 (Rancid Idols Productions, 2022). His work, largely influenced by his experiences with depression and Asperger's, has been published widely throughout Ireland, the UK, and USA.
Ivan de Monbrison is a French poet and artist living in Paris. Born in 1969 and affected by various types of mental disorders, he has published some poems in the past.
Hélène Demetriades joint won the Hedgehog Press Full Fat Poetry Collection competition last year, and will have her debut collection The Plumb Line published in 2022. She is a practising psychotherapist. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and webzines. Many years ago she studied English at Leeds University.
Rebecca Denvers is a poet living near Leeds. She’s been sober since 2014 and loves writing and reading poetry for well-being.
Amanda Deutch is a poet and social practice artist from New York City. Her poetry has been published in The New York Times, Oversound, The Rumpus, Cimarron Review, and in many other journals and magazines. She is the author of several poetry collections, most recently, Bodega Night Pigeon Riot (Above/Ground Press) and Surf Avenue and 29th Street Coney Island (Least Weasel Press). Deutch’s poems have been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and she has been awarded writing residencies from Footpaths to Creativity (Azores) and The Betsy Writer’s Room (Florida). Deutch lives in Brooklyn, where she works as a Library Specialist for youth and as the Executive Director of Parachute Literary Arts in Coney Island.
You can find more of her poetry at www.amandadeutch.com.
RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), Now We Heal: An Anthology of Hope (Wellworth Publishing, 12/2020) in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, Genre Urban Arts, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Twelve Mile Review, York Literary Review, among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals. She’s also a winner of the 2021 Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Sonnet Contest, with anthology publication forthcoming.
Josh Ellis is a Welsh writer and poet living in Wales. His work has appeared in the Welsh independent arts and culture publication, Santes Dwynwen Magazine, and concerns identity and how it relates to ancestry and Celtic mythology with an emphasis on decay. His writing tends towards both the mythic and sublunary treatment of the Welsh landscape, whilst incorporating genealogical nuances of Welsh culture.
DW Evans lives in Jersey. He has won the Alan Jones Prize (2019 & 2021), been shortlisted for Ó Bhéal’s Five Words (2020 & 2021) and the Wells Open Poetry Competition 2021, highly commended by Acumen (2020 competition) and Segora (2021). His poems have appeared in various publications including Frogmore Papers, Acumen, The Honest Ulsterman, Epoch, A3 Review, Madrigal, and Driech.
Teo Eve is a poet and short story writer based in Nottingham. Teo's poetry has been published in issues of streetcake magazine, Babel Tower Notice Board, 404 Ink Magazine, -algia, DIY Poets' Zine, and anthologised in Nottingham C.A.N.'s I Come From series, World Jam's Us vs Virus anthology, and 1010 Press' upcoming Working Class: Language anthology. Teo was part of the GOBS Collective 2021 cohort, and has edited the second issue of Nottingham Poetry Exchange’s Voices anthology. Teo’s debut short story won Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature’s 2020 MyVoice competition.
Becca Fang is a Belfast-born, Brighton reborn writer with a flare for magenta-drenched melancholy. She is the only person who understands the true meaning of Donnie Darko (2001) and, no, she won't explain it to you.
Zary Fekete has worked as a teacher in Hungary, Moldova, Romania, China, and Cambodia. They currently live and work as a writer in Minnesota. They have been featured in various publications including Zoetic Press, Bag of Bones Press, and Mangoprism and have a debut chapbook of short stories out from Alien Buddha Press and a novelette (In the Beginning) coming out in May from ELJ Publications. They enjoy books, podcasts, and long, slow films. Twitter: @ZaryFekete
Brianna Ferguson is a writer from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. A current MFA candidate at the University of British Columbia, she also holds a BA in Creative Writing and a B Ed in Secondary Education from UBC. She has been a contributing writer with Vancouver Weekly since 2018. Her poems and stories have appeared in various publications across North America and the UK. Her debut poetry collection, A Nihilist Walks into a Bar, will be released by Mansfield Press in November 2021.
N.J. Foley is a writer and musician, currently living between England and Paris. He started writing fiction after ten years of working in the service industry and becoming inspired by writers such as Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, and Hunter S. Thompson. In 2021, he began writing poetry. His debut collection, Welcome Back, Frank, was published by Acid Bath Publishing in 2022. Find him on Instagram: @nafillet6
Lara Frankena lives in London. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Poetry News, Ink Sweat & Tears, and Shot Glass Journal and were longlisted for the 2021 Erbacce Prize.
Franco Gabriel is a poet based in the Northwest of England. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring new cultures, sport & fitness, and travelling across the UK by air as a private pilot.
Jeff Gallagher is a poet and playwright from Sussex, England. His poems have appeared in a number of magazines including One Hand Clapping, The Journal, and Spellbinder. He has had numerous plays for young people published and performed in various locations nationwide. He has also appeared in an Oscar-winning movie.
Doctor Galvanic was born in Italy. After completing a degree in Anthropology, he moved from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, looking for love and adventure. He's been stuck there ever since. To pass the time, he writes short stories, some of which have been published in print and online.
Ryan Gibbs lives in London, Canada. His works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in Words Gathered (Canada), Last Leaves (United States), The Turning Point (Australia), Travels and Tribulations (United Kingdom), Paper Lanterns (Ireland), Short Circuit (France), The Wild Word (Germany), Eyelands 10 (Greece), Literature for the People (Malta), and Haiku Pond (Thailand). His children’s poetry was included in the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness. Twitter: @RyanGibbsWriter
Charlotte Goodger studied Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham and writes prose in a variety of genres. She is a freelance writer and digital marketing associate currently based in Birmingham and working on social media projects for heritage and education. Her freelance work focuses on opinion pieces on student-oriented blogs and magazines. Previous contributions include a profile of US physicist Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski for The F-Word, and “The River of Life” for environmental magazine, Louder Than The Storm. She is currently working on her first novel-length work.
Mathew Gostelow (he/him) is a dad, husband, and writer, living in Birmingham, UK. Some days he wakes early and writes strange tales. If you catch him staring into space, he is either thinking about Twin Peaks or cooked breakfasts. His stories and poems have been published by Lucent Dreaming, Janus Literary, The Ghastling, Ellipsis, Stanchion, Roi Fainéant, Cutbow Quarterly, voidspace, and others. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Spare Parts Lit in 2022 and has won prizes from Bag of Bones Press and Beagle North. You can find him on Twitter: @MatGost
Mark Grainger was born in Sussex, where his grandfather and great-grandmother wrote poems before him. He now lives in Frankfurt, Germany, where he translates financial reports for a living. Inspired by his grandfather, he began writing poems to share with his family in 2018. When his output ballooned under the coronavirus lockdown, he began sharing ‘lockdown poetry’ on Twitter.
Rab Green is a Scottish writer living in London looking for creative opportunities. He can be found at rabgreen.co.uk.
HLR (she/her) writes poetry and short prose about mental illness, grief and trauma. Her work has featured in The Hellebore, Constellate Literary Journal, In Parentheses, Anti-Heroin Chic, streetcake magazine, and many others. Her debut prosetry book, History of Present Complaint, was published by Close To The Bone in February 2021. HLR lives in north London, where she was born and raised. Find her on Twitter @HLRwriter.
Piaras J. Hale is a writer working out of Doncaster/York. He is currently studying for an MA in publishing and creative writing after achieving a first-class undergraduate degree in creative writing. As part of his undergraduate success, he attained both the dissertation prize and the programme prize for the overall highest grade. His publications include several reviews, consecutive appearances in the annual Valley Press anthology, Beyond the Walls, and his latest publication, a short story in the online horror magazine, Horrified. He has committed to extensive research into the history, people and culture of Ireland, which has become a great source of inspiration for his writing. Piaras J. is presently active on both Instagram and Twitter under the username, Shakespiaras.
E. Hartley Smith is a York St John University graduate of Creative Writing. She has been published in the Pondweed anthology from Greenteeth Press and is the founder and Chief Editor of Forge Zine. A low-key adrenaline junkie and lover of the seaside, she has lived in Amsterdam and cannot wait to go back, exploring this beautiful world we have (in the most eco-friendly way possible).
Alyson Hasson grew up in New Brunswick, Canada, where she obtained her biology degree and a love for nature-based horror. Her interest in horror movies, combined with her background in biology, spurred a curiosity that led to the drafting of her own stories. She currently spends her days forecasting beer sales and her nights conjuring new monsters.
David Hay has currently been accepted for publication in Dreich, Abridged, Acumen, The Honest Ulsterman, The Dawntreader, Versification, The Babel Tower Notice Board, The Stone of Madness Press, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Fortnightly Review, The Lake, Selcouth Station, GreenInk Poetry, Dodging the Rain, Seventh Quarry, and Expat-Press, among others. His debut publication is the Brexit-inspired prose-poem, “Doctor Lazarus”, published by Alien Buddha Press in 2021.
David Hays is a forty year old teacher, family man, surfer, traveler, dark side dabbler, and long-time closet writer. Born and raised in San Diego, California, for the past decade he has lived in Taitung County on the southeast coast of Taiwan, where he tied the knot with a Taiwanese gal and started a family.
Shortlisted for the Glasgow Women's Library Calm Slam in 2021, Fiona Heatlie's work has subsequently appeared in a number of publications, including the Dreich anthologies, Summer Anywhere and Afterwards. You can find her work on Instagram at @fionaheatliepoetry.
Olivia Heggarty is a writer from Belfast. Her work can be found in Skylight 47, Abridged, and Ink Sweat & Tears, among others. She is the editor-in-chief of the Queen's University literary magazine, The Apiary.
Elise Hesk is a full time, third year, English literature and creative writing student at York St John University.
Alastair Hesp is a poet from Yorkshire currently living in Copenhagen. Although often tense and paradoxical, his writing is concerned with what is affirming of existential realities. Often dark and witty, he likes his poetry to operate on the borders between the elusive edge of reason and the unknown. Currently studying an MA in Poetry at The Manchester Writing School, he has appeared in anthologies and journals such as The Verve anthologies, The Cannon's Mouth, and The French Literary Review. Twitter: @AHespPoet website: www.alastairhesp.co.uk
Megan Kathryn Heywood is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist and writer. Her work encompasses many subjects spanning from personal experiences, storytelling, the concept of home, memory, and the bizarre. She is a phone note poet who believes in making the private public as only in revealing inner thoughts can you truly connect with each other.
Mike Hickman (@MikeHicWriter) is from York, England. He has written for Off the Rock Productions (stage and audio), including the play "Not So Funny Now" about Groucho Marx and Erin Fleming. He has been published in Agapanthus (Best of the Net nominated), EllipsisZine, the South Shore Art and Literary Review, the Bitchin’ Kitsch, the Cabinet of Heed, the Potato Soup Journal, and Red Fez. He currently works in the field of mental health, having spent a great many years also working on his own.
Georgia Hilton is an Irish poet and fiction writer living in Winchester, England. Her poem, “Dark-Haired Hilda Replies to Patrick Kavanagh” won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize in 2018, and she has a pamphlet, I went up the lane quite cheerful, and a collection, Swing, both published by Dempsey and Windle. Her short fiction has appeared in Lunate Fiction, Fictive Dream, and the Didcot Writers anthology. Georgia tweets sometimes at @GGeorgiahilton.
Daniel Hinds won the Poetry Society’s Timothy Corsellis Young Critics Prize. His poetry was commended in the National Centre for Writing’s UEA New Forms Award and has been published in The London Magazine, Southword, The New European, Stand, Wild Court, Prairie Fire, Poetry Birmingham, and elsewhere. His audio piece “The Stone Men of Newcastle” has been broadcast on BBC platforms, including BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 6 Music. Twitter: @DanielGHinds
Jessica Hopsicker lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is employed full-time in a cemetery as a grounds technician. She finds that riding around all day on a zero-turn mower and occasionally burying people is a far more rewarding experience than slaving away third-shift at a gas station. Not to mention she is paid nearly double than what she was there. She is currently writing her forthcoming novel, Dark Days on the Dixie Highway: Diary of a Third Shift Zombie, a memoir about the whole dismal experience. She was recently published in the anthology, Hunter S. Thompson: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations, for having obtained that last interview.
Arden Hunter is an aroace agender writer, artist and performer. Originally from the UK, they now live and work in Jakarta, Indonesia. With an eclectic range of interests from the horrific to the whimsical, the theme tying all of their work together is an inexplicable and unconditional love of the ridiculous beast that is called 'human'. Arden has words and art hosted and upcoming with Cinnabar Moth, The Bear Creek Gazette,
and MASKS Literary Magazine, among other places. Find them on Twitter: @hunterarden.
Julie Irigaray is a French Basque poet living in the UK. Her début pamphlet, Whalers, Witches and Gauchos, was published by Nine Pens Press in April 2021. Her poems have appeared internationally (US, UK, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, and South Korea) in Ambit Magazine; Magma; Stand and Mslexia. She was commended in the 2020 Ambit Magazine Poetry Prize; shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize 2019, and selected as one of the 50 Best New British and Irish Poets 2018 (Eyewear Publishing), among other prizes.
Anna Jackson (She/her), is a York based poetry and short fiction writer, currently studying Creative Writing at York St John University. Her writing takes inspiration from her love of classic and folk horror, mythology, and anything that's a little bit weird. She was most recently published in a feminist magazine, redrosethorns, with her poem, “We Are Women”.
Christopher James is a poet from Birmingham. He is the co-editor of The Utopia Project and has had work published in Lumpen Journal and Amethyst Review. His current writing focuses on class, upbringing, and urban life.
MNJames (All Pronouns) is a poet and editor of FATHERFATHER MAGAZINE. Their work has appeared in ANMLY, Thimble, and Word/ForWord, with work upcoming in Sinister Wisdom. She is an MFA student at Virginia Tech. Find out more at www.pingotooby.com.
Arun Jeetoo is a English teacher from North London. His words appear in The London Reader, a gallery in Cardiff with LUMIN Journal, Civic Leicester’s Black Lives Matter Journal, and The Best New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021. He was a participant in Waterloo Press' LIT UP: Poets of Colour mentoring scheme where his debut pamphlet, I Want to Be the One You Think About at Night, was published by Waterloo Press (2020).
Katie Jenkins is in the final throes of a Creative Writing diploma at Oxford University. Her poem “Raise a drink” was published by Everyman's Library in their Pocket Poets collection of villanelles. Her writing on shark diving in Fiji has featured in the Guardian newspaper. She lives in Gloucestershire and moonlights as a civil servant. She's pretty confident her boss isn't into poetry.
Alan Kissane is a teacher of English and lives in the Midlands. His poetry is due to be published in forthcoming issues of Allegro, Dust Poetry, Emerge Literary Journal, and Fahmidan. Read his poem “Thirteen Long Weeks” here.
Angela Lavelle is a writer from New York. She began writing poetry during college and has since traveled to the UK, where she studied in York and London.
Josh Lefkowitz has published poems and essays in The New York Times, New Poetry from the Midwest 2019, Washington Square Review, Electric Literature, and many other places, including journals in Canada, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong. He lives in Colorado.
Simon Maddrell is a queer Manx poet, editor and facilitator living in Brighton & Hove. He is published in sixteen anthologies and numerous publications, including AMBIT, Butcher’s Dog, The Moth, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, Stand, and Under the Radar. In 2020, Simon’s debut, Throatbone, was published by UnCollected Press and Queerfella jointly-won The Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition, 2020. Nine Pens Press published All About Our Mothers in 2022 and All About Our Fathers in 2023 –– Anthologies with Vasiliki Albedo and Mary Mulholland.
Naomi Marklew is a writer based in Durham in the North East of England. Her work has appeared online and in print in various places, including -algia, streetcake, Selcouth Station, The Aesthetic Directory, Sledgehammer and Dear Damsels, and also in anthologies published by MumWrite, Nine Pens Press and Broken Sleep. She has a PhD in contemporary poetry and tweets @NaomiMarklew. Her website is https:// naomimarklew.wixsite.com/website.
Sadie Maskery lives in Scotland by the sea with her family. Her writing can be found in 2021 in various places, including British Fantasy Society Horizons, Star*Line, Red Planet Magazine, Odd Magazine, Green Ink, Night Sky Press, Seaborne Magazine, Badlung Press, Cross Crow Keys, The Minison Project, Anser Journal, Dreich, 8DPress, Fevers of the Mind, Not Very Quiet, Nightingale and Sparrow, Runcible Spoon, Aequitas Victoria, Edinburgh Literary Society, and Glasgow University, amongst others. She is on Twitter as @saccharinequeen.
cathryn mccarthy is a writer of queer romantic fiction and a lover of poetry, who has studied and worked in theatre, arts, and heritage for over a decade. She has also spent much of that time supplementing her wage with jobs in customer services.
James McDermott’s plays, published by Samuel French, include Rubber Ring and Time and Tide. Their poetry collection, Manatomy, is published by Burning Eye. James’s poems have been published in various magazines including The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Cardiff Review, Popshot Quarterly, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Dawntreader.
Zara Meadows is a poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her poem “Treehugger, Summer 2005” was highly commended in the Tower Poetry Competition in 2020. She is also co-editor of the new zine for young Northern Irish writers, Terrier. Read her poem “The Ice Bucket” here.
Sam Megahy is a famous writer from the north east of England, stuck inside the body of a bald, local authority social worker. Sam has been writing for a year or two and is previously unpublished, but enjoying the process of getting writing into the world.
Joshua Merchant is a Black Queer native of East Oakland exploring what it means to be human as an intersectional being. A lot of what they’ve been exploring as of late has been in the realm of loving and learning what that means while processing trauma, loss, and heartbreak. They feel as though it has become too common to deny access to our true source of power as a means of feeling powerful, especially for those of us more marginalized than others – a collective trauma response if you will. However, they’ve come to recognize with harsh lessons and divine grace that without showing up for ourselves and each other, everything else is null and void. Innately, everything Merchant writes is a love letter to the unapologetically Black and unabashedly Queer. Because of this they've had the honor to witness their work being held and understood in literary journals such as 580Split, Roi Fainéant Press, Snow Flake Magazine, Corporeal, Anvil Tongue, Verum Literary Press, Ice Floe Press, Mongoose, and elsewhere. They’ve recently received the 2023 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award for poetry.
Zach Murphy is a Hawaii-born writer with a background in cinema. His stories appear in Reed Magazine, The Coachella Review, Maudlin House, BODY, Ruminate, Wilderness House Literary Review, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, and more. His debut chapbook, Tiny Universes (Selcouth Station Press, 2021), is available in paperback and e-book. He lives with his wonderful wife Kelly in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Laura Ellyn Newberry (She/her) is a poet based in York and an alumni of the Creative Writing MA at York St John. She studied Physics at Leeds University and works in financial services. Her current poetry is focused on the interrogation of truth, perception and experience. Twitter: @lauraellyn
Niall M Oliver lives in Ireland, and is the author of My Boss, published by Hedgehog Poetry. His poems have featured in Acumen, Atrium, The Honest Ulsterman, Fly On The Wall Press, Ink Sweat & Tears, and others.
Tess P. published Secret Whispers in 2021 – a collection of light /dark verse, available from Amazon. Since then, she’s had numerous horror shorts and poetry published in worldwide anthologies. Her debut contemporary novel is due out 2023. When not writing, you’ll find her taking weird and wonderful photos, or chatting on Twitter @Tess_ 2020. More info can be found on her author Goodreads page at Tess P. or contact her directly: Tesspoetry@yahoo.com
Suzy Pasqualetto is a multidisciplined writer and media producer based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in a Pulitzer winning newspaper, experimental black box theaters, ironic tee-shirts, niche film festivals, and under the byline of 250+ clients as a ghost writer. When not typing away in the corner of a neighborhood cafe, she wishes she was. Find her at www.suzypasquzy.com and @suzypasquzy everywhere else.
Kat Payne Ware is a poet from Bristol, UEA MA Creative Writing graduate, and founder and editor of SPOONFEED, an online literary magazine for creative and experimental food writing. Her writing can be found in various magazines and anthologies, most recently Rewilding: An Ecopoetic Anthology and PERVERSE. Her debut pamphlet, THE LIVE ALBUM, is forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books in July 2021. You can follow her work on Twitter @katpayneware and @SPOONFEEDmag. Read her poem “Resignation” here.
Bernard Pearson’s work appears in over one hundred publications, including: Aesthetica
Magazine, The Edinburgh Review, Crossways, The Gentian, Nymphs, The Poetry Village, Beneath The Fever, The Beach Hut, Little Stone, and the York Literary Review. In 2017, a selection of his poetry, In Free Fall, was published by Leaf by Leaf Press. In 2019, he won second prize in The Aurora Prize for Writing.
Joe Pickard works as an editor for a magazine based in London. He has had writing published in Confluence, Eye Flash Poetry, Soft Cartel, and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of Pulp Poets Press, which is always looking for submissions.
Sarah Radice is an neurodivergent artist and writer and her sobriety birthday is 30 May 2019. She has enjoyed exploring many mediums but at the moment is busy carving stone sculptures in her garden studio, whilst occasionally pausing to scribble the first lines of a poem.
James Rance is a poet, novelist, and collage artist based in York, North Yorkshire. His poems have appeared in Pondweed and Unhomely anthologies (Greenteeth Press), Forge Zine, and his debut poetry pamphlet Bagworm. Twitter: @jrancewriter Instagram: @james.rance48
By day she teaches; by night Kathryn Reilly loves spinning speculative tales or capturing true ones. Her rescue mutts Savvie and Roxy Razzamatazz hear all the stories first. Find poetic adventures in Shadow Atlas, Last Girls Club, Blink Ink, A Flight of Dragons, and fiction published by Tree and Stone, Elly Blue Publishing, and Morian Press. Twitter: @Katecanwrite
Nash Reynolds is a recent college grad who seems to be to wildly oscilalting between total fuck-up and somewhat competent. When things get bad, Nash likes to write about it – pinning the ugly stuff down on a page makes it a bit easier to punch in the teeth.
Rebecca Riddell is a copywriter by day, and a poet/wannabe novelist by any time past 4:30pm. Born and bred in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, she can usually be found writing feminist, queer, and neurodivergent poetry, struggling to finish her first novel, or wondering where it all went wrong. She still hasn’t figured that last one out. You can find her on Instagram @r.a.riddell or @rebecca.asx.
Ed Ridgely hiked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal in 2018, at age 57, an asthmatic, thus completing number one on his bucket list since age 10. At 17,500 feet, he wondered if any of those “you can accomplish anything” self-help gurus had ever done anything like this. But base camp was as far as he wanted to go, that was enough. Then again, who knows what enough really means?
JP Seabright (she/they) is a queer disabled writer living in London. They have two solo pamphlets published: Fragments from Before the Fall (Beir Bua Press, 2021); No Holds Barred (Lupercalia Press, 2022); and the collaborative works: GenderFux (Nine Pens Press, 2022) and MACHINATIONS (Trickhouse Press, 2022). More info https://jpseabright.com/ and via Twitter @errormessage
Arbër Selmani is a journalist and poet from Kosovo. He has published four books and has participated in several literature festivals in Europe, naming POLIP – International Literature Festival in Pristina, LITERODROM – Literature Festival in Slovenia, and the XV Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean in Rome and Thessaloniki. His poems and stories have been translated to Italian, Greek, Slovenian, German, Serbo-Croatian, French, and lately in English for Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, Zoetic Press, Ethel Zine, The Impossible Archetype, Rhodora Magazine, York Literary Review 2022, and Changes Press.
Katherine Shirley is a native Londoner and constant scribbler. Katherine’s poems have appeared in The Best New British and Irish Poets Anthology 2016; the Snakeskin e-zine; the Gold Dust calendar; Soul Vomit; and her work The Water Way was lock no. 87 on the Rochdale Canal Festival Poetry Trail. Katherine has featured at the Stockwell Festival and the Ashmolean Museum’s ‘Poetry in the Galleries’ series. Katherine’s short stories, “Madeleine” (Infectious Theatre) and “Ernie’s Story” (The Ashtray Project for Colour House Theatre), have been adapted for the stage. Katherine’s poetry blog can be found at www.katherineshirley.wordpress.com.
Gerry Stewart is a poet, Creative Writing tutor, and editor based in Finland. Her poetry collection, Post-Holiday Blues, was published by Flambard Press, UK. Totems is to be published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2021. Her writing blog can be found at www.thistlewren.blogspot.fi and @grimalkingerry on Twitter.
Matthew Stewart works in the Spanish wine trade and lives between Extremadura and West Sussex. Following two pamphlets with HappenStance Press, he published his first full collection, The Knives of Villalejo, with Eyewear Books in 2017.
Bud Sturguess was born in the small cotton-and-oil town of Seminole, Texas. He now lives in his "adopted hometown," Amarillo. Sturguess has self-published several books, his latest being the novel, Sick Things. His work appears in the print anthologies, Mid/South from Belle Point Press, and The Daily Drunk's From Parts Unknown. He lives on disability benefits and collects neckties.
Pramod Subbaraman is a dentist by profession. He has also been a parliamentary candidate and a race equality campaigner. He has loved poetry of all eras since early childhood and is discovering that love again. He moved from Bangalore, India to the UK in late 2005 where he has lived ever since. He lives in Hull with his wife and his 4 year old son. Read his poem “Ah! Beautiful Edinburgh” here.
Kelly Talbot has edited books and other content for 20 years for Wiley, Macmillan, Oxford, Pearson Education, and other publishers. His writing has appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies. He divides his time between Indianapolis, United States, and Timisoara, Romania.
Ilias Tsagas is a Greek poet writing in English and in Greek. His poems have appeared in journals like: Ambit, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Beir Bua, SAND, FU Review, Poetry Lab Shanghai, Plumwood Mountain, and elsewhere. He has also published poems in anthologies, such as: Deviance by Toothgrinder Press and Disease by Carnaval Press.
Plum Urquhart is a queer poet living and writing in St Andrews, Scotland.
Robin Vaughan-Williams is a poet who ended up in London. He enjoys bouncing off other people's words and making tiny leaps into the void. He is the author of The Manager (Happenstance Press).
Angharad Williams (She/Her) is a poet and charity worker living in Manchester, UK. She has most recently appeared in Forge Zine and Green Ink Poetry's collection, Pyres. You can find her on twitter @angharadsays.
Addison Williams is a poet, musician, and writer from Canterbury. His writing achievements include being shortlisted for Thanet Writers 2020 short story competition and longlisted for Dissonance Magazine’s 2020 Non- Fiction competition. He has also had spoken word pieces commissioned by the Marlowe Theatre, a poem published in Firewords Magazine, and received radio play for his music.
Alexander Williamson is a writer and photographer based in the Scottish Highlands. You can find more of his work at www.alexander-williamson.com.
Nicole M. Wolverton's undergraduate student years were spent at Temple University, and she is a current graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania — both located in Philadelphia, PA. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Aji, The Molotov Cocktail, and Jersey Devil Press, as well as in anthologies from Dark Ink Books and Sliced Up Press, among others. Her creative nonfiction has been published by The Hungry Ghost Project. She is the author of The Trajectory of Dreams (Bitingduck Press) and editor of the upcoming Bodies Full of Burning anthology (Sliced Up Press). Find her at www.nicolewolverton.com or on Twitter at @nicolewolverton.
Spencer Wood is a poet and teacher based in Leeds. His poems have been published in Untitled Voices and Modern Queer Poets by Pilot Press. Spencer recently read at the Leeds Poetry Festival and he runs the monthly LGBTQ+ Drama Club for Leeds Community Consortium.
Riyad Zine (they/he) is a 26-year-old queer/trans*, mixed race and disabled person living in Brighton. They have been writing for several years but have been doing mostly academic (politics) writing for a long time. Instagram: @riyad.zine