Author Biographies

Maryam Alsaeid is an Iraqi British poet from Manchester. She holds an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Wales, The Manchester Review, Bad Lilies, Acumen, Allegro, and Eche.

Morag Anderson’s chapbook, And I Will Make of You a Vowel Sound (Fly on the Wall Press, 2024), won the Aryamati Prize and was nominated for a Sky Arts Award. Her work is published in Mslexia, Butcher’s Dog, and is forthcoming in Poetry London. She is a student on Arvon’s Advanced Writing Programme.

Adam Cairns is a poet and essayist whose work explores the intersection of landscape and legacy. His poetry is deeply rooted in the Herefordshire landscape, using the textures of the River Wye, the Malvern springs, and the local hop-yards. He is chair of Ledbury Poetry.

Suzanna Fitzpatrick (she/her) is widely published in magazines and anthologies in the UK and worldwide and has won numerous competitions. Her pamphlet, Fledglings (2016) and her collection, Crippled (2025) are both published by Red Squirrel Press. She holds the Poetry School/Newcastle University MA in Writing Poetry with Distinction.

M.C.A. Gibson is a poet and smallholder from Oxfordshire. His work explores the relationship between the human and more-than-human. He has recently been developing a sketching technique as a means of catching what Alice Oswald calls ‘the living energy’ of these encounters. He was shortlisted for the Live Canon International Poetry prize 2026 and has been published in magazines including South, Alchemy Spoon, South Bank and Kite Strings

Lesley James is a writer and teacher from Wales. If she were on eBay she’d probably be described as ‘Vintage. Collectable’. She received a Representing Wales award in 2024-25 and was shortlisted for the Borzello Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, A Walk With Scissors, is published by Infinity Books UK. She is @feetpetiteperson on Instagram.

Esther Lay was nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2025 and has been widely published, with poems in Grain, Waxed Lemon, 14 Magazine, Four Faced Liar, and Magma, and forthcoming work in Poetry London. Her debut collection will be published by Corsair in 2028. @estherdaponte (X), @estherlaypoetry (Instagram).

Jane Lovell, winner of the Ginkgo Prize, explores our connection with the natural world – its beauty, fragility and resilience. Collections include This Tilting Earth (Seren, 2019), The God of Lost Ways (Indigo Dreams, 2021), On Earth, as it is (Hazel Press, 2023) and Tipping Point (Night River Wood 2025). She is currently collaborating with artist David Suff on a collection of bird poetry.

Roy Marshall's three collections to date are The Sunbathers (2013), shortlisted for the Michael Murphy award), The Great Animator (2017) and a short book of translations, After Montale (2019), all from Shoestring Press. Roy lives in Leicestershire where he works in adult education.

Nina Parmenter is a poet and working mum from Wiltshire. Her first collection, Split, Twist, Apocalypse was published by Indigo Dreams; her new pamphlet, Kiss Chase with Darwin (Broken Sleep) will be out in November 2026. Nina runs Trowbridge Stanza, where she hosts open mics, welcomes guest poets and runs workshops. Insta: @nina.parmenter, Bluesky: @ninaparmenter.bsky.social Facebook: @parmenterpoetry.

Fiona Moore's first collection The Distal Point (Happenstance) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot and Seamus Heaney prizes. Her second collection is Okapi (Blue Diode). She is on the Magma Poetry team and the Poetry in Aldeburgh committee. fionamoore555 on Instagram, fiona.moore.773 on Facebook

Tigi Syme is a British poet living in Germany. She is working towards her first collection and is a key member of the Hamburg Writer’s Group. She is published in the 2025 issue of 14 Magazine and was short-listed for the Bridport Prize in 2021 and 2025. @tigisyme @mkghamburg

Miriam Swales is an American-British writer and educator living in Kent. She has been published in IS&T, was highly commended with Primers 2025 (Nine Arches Press), and was longlisted in The Rialto’s Nature and Place Competition (2026).

Carl Tomlinson lives on a smallholding in Oxfordshire. His poems have appeared in Orbis, South, Spelt, The High Window, The Alchemy Spoon and several anthologies. His debut pamphlet Changing Places was published in 2021 by Fair Acre Press.

Barbara Barnes’s poems have appeared in many places including Poetry London, Under the Radar, Butcher’s Dog, Interpreter’s House, Brixton Review of Books, London Grip, Arc Poetry, The Alchemy Spoon, Perverse, Black Iris, and in a window on Oxford Street. Her first collection Hound Mouth won the Live Canon competition and was published in 2022.

Tamar Yoseloff's seventh collection, Belief Systems, is published by Nine Arches Press. She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023 and is currently a freelance lecturer in creative writing.

Edited and produced by Sarah Gibbons and Lauren Thomas in London, England. Issue 6 © Black Iris Poetry, individual parts © poets listed