Alice Hiley
Alice studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Since graduating, she’s worked as a copyeditor and marketing assistant, and writes for The Reviews Hub in her spare time. She’s currently working on a new adult novel based in a dingy block of uni halls. More… @hileyalice
Annie Dobson
Annie is a Creative and Critical Writing graduate. Her work has appeared in Ambit, The Bi-ble and RS21 among others. She lives in London. More… @anidbsn
Aoife Inman
Aoife is a writer and sometimes-poet interested in memory and landscape. Her short fiction has been short-listed for the V.S. Pritchett Award, long-listed for the Royal Academy of the Arts Pindrop Award, and, in 2018, won the Ryedale Book Festival Short Story Prize. By day she works as the Agents’ Assistant for Felicity Bryan Associates, an Oxford-based literary agency. More … @aoifeinman
Billie Collins
Billie is a playwright and screenwriter from Merseyside. Her most recent play, Too Much World At Once was written on attachment with Box of Tricks Theatre, and received a rehearsed reading at HOME in January 2020. She is currently working at the BFI Film Fund, and is a script reader for the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. More… @KLFCollins
Charlotte Carrick
Charlotte is a playwright and screenwriter. Her work has been performed at Theatre 53two in Manchester, The Liverpool Everyman, Leeds Playhouse, The Rosemary Branch Theatre in London and Chapel FM in Leeds. Charlotte has written three short films that can be on the Squad Player. Charlotte is the Centre Manager & Communication Coordinator at Chapel FM and works for The Performance Ensemble on Alan Lyddiard’s The Bus Pass Project for Leeds 2023. More…
Elizabeth Gibson
Liz is a writer and performer based in Manchester, whose work explores queer identity, body image, city living and nature. She won a Northern Writers’ Award in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Poetry Business’ New Poets Prize in 2018. More … @Grizonne
Emily Pritchard
Emily is currently completing her MA in Poetry and Poetics at the University of York. She has poems published in The Kindling and Poetry Birmingham. More… @poetrypritch
Emma Adams
Emma is a playwright, screenwriter and dramaturge from Bradford. Her writing ranges between dark political satire for adults and adventure comedy for children. She’s written plays to be performed in houses, swimming pools and graveyards (as well as on stages). Emma is currently writing HOAX (commissioned by Leeds Playhouse) and developing a TV comedy thriller Dropping Off with Shiny Button for ITV. She is a member of the Squad Core Team More…. @Emmabob3
The Outline of a Shape I Can’t Yet Name
Fahad Al-Amoudi
Fahad Al-Amoudi is a poet currently studying History at Durham University. He is a Roundhouse 2019 finalist and has been published in an anthology edited by Nikita Gill. He is also part of a spoken word band called, The Poetry Experiment. More… @freeformfahad
Looking Over Pitch 2, Empty Tuesday Afternoon
Staring At Kirsty’s Painting of the Drum Tower in Beijing
Fielding Ronshaugen
Fielding Ronshaugen is a writer, poet and primary school teacher living in Manchester. She has had work published in Cake, Magma and Cadaverine and has contributed to literary festivals such as Ledbury, Bridlington and more recently the Manchester Literature Festival working with Read Manchester with readings of her work and workshops for young people. More… @fronshaugen
Georgia Affonso
Georgia Affonso is a Manchester-based writer and theatre maker. She co-manages No Door Theatre, a company producing work that champions female voices. Her play Runway recently toured to Manchester, Oxford and London. Georgia has also written for Northern Broadsides, in collaboration with John Godber and for new music ensemble No Dice Collective. More… @georgia_writes
Gregory Kearns
Gregory Kearns is a poet based in Liverpool. Currently a furloughed events and community fundraiser professional at The Brain Charity. More … @GregoryKearns
Hannah Hobson
Hannah is an all purpose writer from Yorkshire. She is spending lockdown trying to put 1,000 words a day on her, long awaited, debut novel. More … @Hannah_R_Hobson
Hannah Hodgson
Hannah Hodgson is a writer and poet living with a life limiting illness. She writes about her medical experiences, hospice use and family life. Her first poetry pamphlet Dear Body was published by Wayleave Press in 2018. More… @HodgsonWrites
James Varney
James is a writer and theatre maker based in Manchester. He runs workshops with young people in Greater Manchester and the north of England and writes about Queer things in all senses of the word. He is working on his garden. More… @mrjvarney
Jasmine Gray
Jasmine is an English Literature and Creating Writing graduate, currently living in Liverpool. Her poetry explores feminism, class and fragile minds. Her debut pamphlet Let’s Photograph Girls Enjoying Life was published by Broken Sleep Books last year. More… @jasgraywrites
A Line From My Diary For Every Day of Lockdown
Jemima Mitra
Jemima is a British Indian punk poet based in Hull/Manchester. A founding member of the No Larkin About collective she set up Word Journeys open mic for under 30s in Hull. Since being diagnosed with Lupus, Jemima has campaigned for disability rights and awareness of racism within disabled groups. Published in Acumen Young Poets, Soundsphere Magazine, The Roaring Girls blog, she has performed at Freedom Festival, Awareness Festival and BBC’s Contains Strong Language. Jemima is currently working with Middle Child Theatre on her first play. @punkofcolour
Jenny Danes
Jenny Danes grew up in Essex and is currently studying for a Poetry MA at the University of East Anglia. Her work has appeared in various magazines including The Rialto, Magma, The North, The Interpreter’s House and Butcher’s Dog. In 2016 she won the inaugural Poetry Business New Poets Prize, and her resulting debut pamphlet Gaps was published by smith|doorstop in July 2017. More… @jenny_danes
Jenny O’Sullivan
As a queer, dyslexic northerner, Jenny draws comics, writes plays and performs drag, united by an interest in illegibility. Their graphic poem Lightbulb Moment was published in The Mays XXVII, and Jacks of all Trades: Refusing Mastery – a graphic essay on gender, was commissioned as part of the Yorkshire Dance Encounters Festival. To further avoid any accusation of being specialised, Jenny explores the big queer question through comedy song as drag persona Ding Frisby. More… @ding_theking_frisby
Jessica Wood
Jessica is a poet based in Lisbon. Her work is inspired by politics, theology, conversations without caveats and all the unopened tabs on her browser. She has a complicated relationship with the question ‘what do you do?’ More … @jesslouisewood
Kym Deyn
Kym Deyn is a poet, playwright and fortune teller. They are currently studying for a Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University. Their work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry, and Neon. More… @shortestwitch
Laura Attridge
leasuresLaura is a writer and director from York. Publication of her poems includes The Rialto and Mslexia, and her song cycles have premiered at Glyndebourne, the Royal College of Music, The National Gallery and Bard College (New York). She has been commissioned to write operas for companies including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera, and Sound Festival. More … @laura_attridge
Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith
Lauren Hollingsworth Smith is from Rotherham. She won the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Awards in 2019, and was highly commended in the Young Northern Writers Award and Ilkley Young Writers Competition in the same year. Her debut collection, Ugly Bird, won the 2020 new poets Prize and will be published by Smith Doorstop in summer 2021. She has been published in Hive anthologies, halfway smile and surfing the twilight, and by The Poetry Society. She will be young poet in residence for Sheffield Sheaf festival in November this year. Lauren volunteers for children’s literary charity Grimm & Co. @LHS_poetess
Libby Williamson
Libby is a playwright and general theatre-maker from a lot of places, but based in Manchester. Her work has been shown at the Royal Exchange, on BBC Radio Manchester, and in a derelict nightclub in Rusholme. She is currently completing her BA in Drama and English Literature at the University of Manchester. More…. @libbathena
Louise Essex
Louise Essex is a poet and musician from Hertfordshire. She studied Literature at the University of York, where she joined The Writing Squad, and later completed her MA in English at UCL. Her poetry has been published in Banshee, Under the Radar and Butcher’s Dog and appears in Introduction X: The Poetry Business Book of New Poets. She now lives and works in Barcelona.. More… @_LouiseEssex
Lydia Allison
Lydia is a poet, writing facilitator, creative mentor, and tutor. She lived in China for a year where she taught English, before coming back to complete an MA in Poetry at Manchester Writing School. Lydia works closely with organisations including Grimm and Co, Virtual School Rotherham, and The People’s History Museum. Her work has been included in magazines like PN Review and anthologies including The Result Is What You See Today and Introduction X, both published by smith|doorstop. She writes a range of topics including food, animals, and wedding dresses. More…. @lydiarallison
Lydia Hounat
Lydia is a British-Algerian artist from Manchester, England. She has been published with HOBART, Spontaneous Poetics, and Peach Magazine. She is an Editor for REALITY BEACH and SOBER. zine, and was a Poet-in-Residence with Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections and First Draft Cabaret’s Let The Artists In! More… @lydiahounat
Matthew Ingram
Matthew is a scriptwriter based in Yorkshire, and locked down in Wales. He’s been developed by organisations such as Sherman Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and BBC Writersroom, and his work has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, at The North Wall, Oxford and on BBC Radio 3. More… @matthewoingram
Nasim Asl
Nasim is a journalist and poet. She’s based in Glasgow, and has lived in Oxford, London and Aberdeen since leaving Washington when she was 18. Nasim has performed her poetry across Scotland and is a member of the Scottish BAME Writers Network. She most recently had her work published in the pamphlet ‘Ceremony’ by Tapsalteerie Press.
On Trying Tattie Scones For The First Time
Philip Brennan
Philip is a writer from Reading. He quit his job in London to write a novel in Norwich. That novel is slow progress. More…
Riley Bramley-Dymond
Riley is a writer and filmmaker working in the north of England. In 2017 he made the short Ill-Fitting Shoes and his short Profit was screened at Film Hub North and BFI NETWORK’s Northern Exposure event in March 2019. He was in the BFI NETWORK’s 2019 script lab. He has recently been posting street clips on Instagram. More… @Rbdymond
Ruby Lawrence
Ruby is a writer originally from York, now based in Glasgow. She works for a charity called Who Cares? Scotland. More ..
Ruth Yates
Ruth lives in Sheffield. Her poems have been published in ‘Introduction X: The Poetry Business Book of New Poets’. She works as a Speech and Language Therapist and Recovery Tutor. More …
Dandelion Clock on VE Day 2020
Sarah Gonnet
Sarah is a writer and artist from the North-East. She frequently makes work about mental health and disability. She also works as a film critic for the Guardian, Little White Lies and others. Her novel MaTilda is published by Holland House. More…
Steve Dearden
Steve is the Director of the Writing Squad. More… @stevedearden
Vivienne Burgess
In the Before Times, Vivienne worked as a theatre usher and education support worker. Neon Books magazine nominated her short fiction for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions 2020. In Lockdown she is working on a longer story about a young woman’s surreal disconnection between her body and sexuality. More … @viennvienn
Yasmin Roe
Yasmin is an English in Education student at York University currently working on a collection of poetry called The Exit Interview. Yasmin spent some time as a student mental health nurse before deciding she was better suited to teaching. The collection reflects on the time she spent as a student nurse.