Author Biographies

Michael Alcée’s work has appeared in San Antonio Review, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, and Tarry and is forthcoming in Quarter Press. In addition to being a poet, he is a psychologist and author of Therapeutic Improvisation (Norton, 2022) and The Upside of OCD (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024).

Abigail Ardelle Zammit is a Maltese writer, editor and educator. She read for a PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK. Her poetry collections are Leaves Borrowed from Human Flesh (Etruscan Press, Wilkes University, 2025), Portrait of a Woman with Sea Urchin (London: SPM, 2015) and Voices from the Land of Trees (UK: Smokestack, 2007). She has co-authored two bilingual pamphlets (Half Spine, Half Wild Flower: Nofsi Spina, Nofsi Fjur Selvaġġ and Mal-Waqgħa tal-Weraq: A Scatter of Leaves). Abigail’s poems, translations and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in a variety of international journals including CounterText, Black Iris, Matter, Tupelo Quarterly, Ploughshares, Boulevard, Gutter, Modern Poetry in Translation, Mslexia, Poetry International, The SHOp, Iota, Aesthetica, Ink, Sweat and Tears, High Window, O:JA&L, The Ekphrastic Review, Smokestack Lightning (Smokestack, 2021) and The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology 2022 (Véhicule Press, 2023). Abigail is currently researching desert landscapes from around the world and her next collection deserere #desertum is forthcoming with Tupelo Press (2028). Read her latest work at https://abigailardellezammit.net

Andy Breckenridge writes about exile, identity, memory and relationships and other stuff. Publications include a pamphlet, The Liquid Air (Dreich), and a full collection, The Fish Inside (Flight of the Dragonfly). His poems have appeared in; Dreich, Full House Literary, Flights, Iamb, Nutmeg Magazine, Poet’s Republic, The Shore and The Storms.

Liz Byrne lives near Manchester. She won the Best Landscape Poem, Ginkgo Prize 2020 and was placed third in the Ginkgo Prize 2021. Her poetry appears in The Curlew, Obsessed with Pipework, Orbis, Agenda, Butcher’s Dog, Crannog, Strix, The North, Under the Radar, and, Ink, Sweat and Tears.

Suzanna Fitzpatrick (she/her) is widely published. She has been placed in numerous competitions, received the Poetry Society Hamish Canham Prize, and won the Newcastle University Chancellor’s Prize two years running. Her debut pamphlet, Fledglings, was published by Red Squirrel Press in 2016, and her first full collection, Crippled, in 2025.

Erika Heskethis a London-based poet, originally from Japan and Denmark. Her poetry has been commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall, Spread the Word and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the Poetry Translation Centre. Her debut collection is In the Lily Room (Nine Arches Press).

Sue Johns originates from Cornwall where she started performing as a punk poet, in the 1980’s. Publications include Hush (Morgan’s Eye Press, 2011) ,  Rented, Poems on Prostitution and Dependency (Palewell Press, 2018) and Track Record (Dempsey & Windle, 2021). She was highly commended in the Prole pamphlet and the Amnesty International competition. She has an MA in Writing Poetry from Newcastle University/ The Poetry School

Mirkka Jokelainen lives and works in South London. Her work has previously published in magazines such as Acumen, Lighthouse and Ink Sweat and Tears. She enjoys sitting on her sofa and looking at the trees. 

Glyn Maxwell’s most recent books are The Big Calls and How The Hell Are You, which was shortlisted for the Eliot Prize in 2020. He is Head of Studies on the MA at The Poetry School, and recently began training in Psychotherapy at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education. Substack: Silly Games To Save The World https://glynmaxwellgmailcom.substack.com

Sarah Mnatzaganian is an Anglo-Armenian poet. Her debut, Lemonade in the Armenian Quarter, was published by Against the Grain Press in 2022 and won the Saboteur Award. Work has featured in PN Review, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, The North, Magma, Poetry News, Poetry in the Waiting Room and several anthologies. Poems have been set into a song cycle by Noah Max and translated by Dr Tamar Drukker for Granta’s Hebrew edition.

Katrina Moinet

JLM Morton’s poetry has featured on BBC6 Music and in Poetry Review, Rialto, Magma, Mslexia and The London Magazine. She is the winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer and Poetry Archive Worldview Prizes and was highly commended by the Forward Prizes. Her debut poetry collection is Red Handed (Broken Sleep, 2024).

James O'Hara-Knight is a writer from East London. He has had poems highly commended in the 2019 Live Canon International Poetry Competition and the 2018 Winchester Poetry Prize. His poetry and fiction have been shortlisted and longlisted in other prizes, including the 2017 Cambridge Short Story Prize, the 2018 Bridport Poetry Prize, the 2022 Leicester Writes Short Story Prize, and the 2023 and 2025 Renard Press prizes. His writing, including literary criticism, appears in journals and anthologies such as The London Magazine, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, The Keats-Shelley Review, Acumen, Lighthouse Literary Journal, Berlin Lit, The Poetry Bus, and anthologies from Off the Chest, Fragmented Voices, and others. He is pursuing a PhD on British and Irish poetry of place after Wordsworth, funded by a Queen Mary University of London Principal's Research Studentship.

Louie Rudge is a trans poet based on the River Lea, London. Their work has recently been published in 'Carmen et Error' and 'The Waxed Lemon'. They are currently studying an MA in Poetry at the Poetry School, London. 

Jacqueline Saphra is a TS Eliot Prize-shortlisted author of nine plays, five chapbooks and five poetry collections. Her most recent collection, Velvel’s Violin (Nine Arches Press) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and Radio 4 Extra Poetry Book of the month. She is a founder member of Poets for The Planet.

Kevin Scully’s poetry has appeared in Pennine Platform, Atrium, The Merton Journal, Theology, Prole, The Fib Review and Second Chance Lit. He was longlisted for the Live Canon Competition in 2017 and 2024. He won the Eastbourne Poetry Café contest and the Ashdown Forest Poetry Competition in 2024. Kevin was the inaugural Poet in Residence for the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path, from which came his pamphlet For The Journey. He has an MA after studying at the Poetry School, London.

Sue Spiers lives in Hampshire. Her poems are widely published in magazines and anthologies. Sue was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition 2023/4 and won a Hedgehog Press pamphlet competition with A Wallet of Creature Poems in 2024. Her latest collection is De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da. 

Ben Verinder holds an MA in Writing Poetry from The Poetry School and Newcastle University. His debut pamphlet, Botanicals, was published by Frosted Fire in 2021 and his second, We Lost The Birds, by Nine Pens in 2023. He is the 2024/5 Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year.