Category: Participants

Kay Greyson is a twenty year old Hip Hop artist from the North East of England. Since releasing her debut mixtape ‘Morning After Music’ in 2016, she has performed all across the north including supporting gigs for acts like Akala, KRS One and Pharoahe Monch. She takes strong inspiration from her influences Chance the rapper… Continue reading Kay Greyson

John Challis is a poet, researcher and teacher living in the North East. His debut collection of poems The Resurrectionists was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2021. Until recently, he was writer-in-residence at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall, where he produced Hallsong, a series of poems published as a pamphlet and made into a film. He… Continue reading John Challis

Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in northwest Alberta. He lives in Vancouver, where he is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. His books are THIS WOUND IS A WORLD, winner of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, NDN COPING MECHANISMS, longlisted for Canada Reads… Continue reading Billy-Ray Belcourt 

Polly Atkin is a poet and nonfiction writer, living in the English Lake District. Her first poetry collection Basic Nest Architecture (Seren: 2017) is followed by Much With Body (Seren, 2021), supported a 2020 Northern Writers Award. She has also published three pamphlets: bone song (Aussteiger, 2008), Shadow Dispatches (Seren, 2013) and With Invisible Rain… Continue reading Polly Atkin

Jo Clement is a writer, editor, and educator.  Jo holds a practice-led Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Newcastle University and was awarded an inaugural AHRC Northern Bridge scholarship. She is currently a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Northumbria University (Leverhulme 2021-2022). In 2012 she received a Northern Writers’ Award (New Writing North) selected by Paul… Continue reading Jo Clement

John Agard was born in Georgetown, Guyana. His love of language began in school where his favourite subjects were English, French and Latin. His collections include Half Caste (2005), We Brits (2006) Clever Backbone (2009), Alternative Anthem (2009) Travel Light Travel Dark (2013), Playing the Ghost of Maimonides (2016) and The Coming of the Little… Continue reading John Agard

Grace Nichols was born and brought up in Guyana. After working there as a teacher and journalist, she came to Britain in 1977. Her first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She has published many books of poetry for both adults and children, including the bestselling, The Fat Black… Continue reading Grace Nichols

David Spittle is a poet, filmmaker, and essayist. His second collection, Rubbles (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) was praised by the PBS as a ‘provocative and electric read’. His debut, All Particles and Waves was published by Black Herald Press (2020) following the pamphlet, B O X (HVTN, 2018). A book of interviews with filmmakers on… Continue reading David Spittle

Kathleen Jamie, poet and essayist, was born in Scotland in 1962. Her work concerns nature, travel and culture. Her poetry collections include The Overhaul, which won the 2012 Costa Poetry Prize,and The Tree House, which won the Forward prize. Her non-fiction includes the highly regarded Findings, Sightlines, and Surfacing, all regarded as important contributions to… Continue reading Kathleen Jamie 

Anne Ryland’s third poetry collection, Unruled Journal, was published by Valley Press last October. Her previous books are Autumnologist, shortlisted for The Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2006, and The Unmothering Class, a New Writing North Read Regional choice (both by Arrowhead Press). She gained a Distinction in Newcastle University’s inaugural MA in Writing… Continue reading Anne Ryland