Alison Powell
Alison Powell runs WriteClub and has facilitated creativity workshops at universities, schools and festivals around the world. She is an award winning writer, published in various anthologies and magazines and holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa. She is an active member of National Association of Writers in Education and is also a Master Practitioner of NLP and coaching.
She believes that everyone has the right to express themselves through writing and runs sessions that support new writers to find their voice, as well as workshops on craft and longer courses to help writers develop their work. She also offers one-to-one mentoring and is currently supporting several novelists and memoir writers. Her passion for poetry and story along with her enthusiasm for helping people find the best in themselves are reflected in her lively and open presentation style.
Chris Beale
Chris Beale is a musician, writer, workshop leader, event producer and founder of Tonic - a music and spoken word event series in Bristol. Prior to lockdown, Chris worked hard to prepare a digital stage for Tonic's events and workshops ahead of the public health crisis.
He has a passion to make art as access-friendly as possible and is interested in new ways to increase engagement and interaction between performers and audience members. Both in-venue and live-streamed events offer different experiences and Chris has enjoyed working within the new constraints to bring positivity in a potentially difficult time.
Through Tonic, Chris also collaborates with other groups, charities and festivals to bring unique projects to the public including Bristol Central Library, LYRA - Bristol's Poetry Festival and OTR.
Currently, his work is focused in the South West arts scene; a scene by which he is constantly inspired.
Grace Palmer
Grace Palmer is a writer and teacher who loves supporting other writers. She's taught creative writing at Bristol Folk House for over three years. In 2013 she set up Novel Nights for writers in Bristol, later expanding to Bath and Exeter, and now online. Novel Nights delivers a programme of talks, podcasts Q&As, open mics and masterclasses so that writers can be inspired, network, and learn about writing and publishing.
Grace’s short stories and flash fiction are available in literary journals, including Comma Press and Magma, anthologies, e-zines and on BBC Radio Bristol. Longlists include the Bristol Prize, Ellipsis Zine, and Bath Flash Fiction. She's been invited to read her stories at book launches, literary festivals and nightclubs. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and is editing her second novel, Cathy’s Field.
Jasmin Perry
Jasmin enjoys writing fantasy and dystopian fiction that explores themes of moral subjectivism and mental health. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and has had work included in the RSPB's Back from the Brink anthology, Rife magazine and The Everyday magazine. She was listed as one of Rife magazine's ‘24 Most Influential Bristolians Under 24’ in 2019 and is the founder of Weston Writer's Nights.
Jasmine Richards
Jasmine Richards has worked in children’s publishing for 15 years at both Puffin and OUP. As an author she has written and published over a dozen books for children. For five years she ran Book Bound – a writer’s retreat that has supported and launched many debut children’s authors. She has delivered author training for Booktrust Represents and still teaches on the Oxford MA for creative writing. As an expert on the industry she has written an article for the Writers and Artist’s yearbook 2020 on the publishing market.
In 2019, Jasmine founded Storymix - a book incubator with a social purpose. Storymix creates children's fiction series with diverse casts of characters in an organic, joyful and authentic way. Storymix works with emerging writers from BME backgrounds and offers a pathway to publication. Through Jasmine’s nurture and support she is tackling the chronic under-representation of creatives of colour in children’s books.
JLM Morton
JLM Morton is a poet and hybrid writer interested in the interplay between language, sound, musicality and visual culture. Originally an academic by trade, Juliette studied at Goldsmiths, Sussex and Manchester Universities, graduating with MAs in literature and creative writing and a PhD exploring gender, whiteness/race, power and place.
Juliette’s work is widely published, she’s Poet in Residence throughout 2020 at Waterland (Cotswold Water Park). She’s been invited to read / forced her way into various poetry nights and festivals including Ledbury and Stroud's Wool & Water and the Places of Poetry project made a beautiful film of her poem ‘Stroudwater Navigation.’
As a response to lockdown, Juliette partnered with artist Susie Hetherington on The Outposted Project, bringing together writers, artists and makers across the UK to map our collective, creative responses to isolation.
In Summer 2020 Juliette launched Dialect, a new social enterprise to support rural writers.
Marnie Forbes Eldridge
Marnie Forbes Eldridge is a freelance Writer and Theatre Practitioner and an Associate Director for Prime Theatre Company. She is a specialist in Drama and Theatre for education and has developed innovative curriculums. Having worked in professional theatre for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer and writer, she is a specialist in storytelling, creating theatre for and with young people, has taught in a wide arena of education establishments from schools to universities, and has developed theatre companies, educational courses, departments, and facilitated the learning of practitioners, students and teachers.
Marnie has created board games and interactive learning products. She has a MA in Theatre Studies, specializing in Japanese and Chinese theatre with actor training and an MA in Writing for Young people. She has written three novels for young people and many plays.
Matthew Tett
Matthew Tett is an English teacher and freelance writer who lives near Bath. In 2017, Matthew took place in Paper Nations' Writing Ambassadors programme, which led to an Arts Award qualification and funded work in a Wiltshire secondary school. Since its inception in 2018, Matthew has coordinated StoryTown Corsham. He is also involved with NAWE - namely as a peer reviewer and as Writing in Education's Reviews Editor. Matthew is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Michael Loveday
Michael Loveday is a writer and writing facilitator based in Bath. His novella-in-flash Three Men on the Edge (V. Press, 2018) was shortlisted for the 2019 Saboteur Award for Best Novella. He is currently completing a flash fiction collection on the theme of secrets in all their forms. He also writes poetry, with a pamphlet He Said / She Said published by HappenStance Press (2011). After 8 years working as a workshop facilitator in adult education and Higher Education in London and Bath, since September 2019 he has been working primarily online as a mentor and editor for clients in the UK and internationally.
He has a particular specialism as an editor/mentor for novellas-in-flash: https://michaelloveday.com/novella-in-flash/ He is a Director of the National Association of Writers in Education and is Chair of NAWE's Community Writers Sub-Committee.
Nikki Dudley
Nikki is managing editor of streetcake magazine, runs the streetcake prize and also the MumWrite development programme for mums producing experimental writing. She has a chapbook and collection with Knives Forks and Spoons, as well as a published novel. She was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for fiction 2020.
Rebecca Adams
Rebecca is a teacher, writer and facilitator working in community and higher education. She delivers Writing for Wellbeing courses with a focus on reflection, change, and self-coaching and coaches writers who want to make a difference through their writing.
After studying a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Spanish and a PGCE in Further Education, she spent 18 years teaching and coaching in Spain. She began her career at the University of Cantabria before moving to southern Spain where she freelanced for 12 years with the publisher Macmillan Iberia ELT as an educational speaker and collaborative writer.
Fluent in Spanish and inspired by the mountains, she spends her spare time in the region of Cádiz (SW Spain), where she used to live. This is also where she organises writers’ retreats in the stunning mountain range of Andalucía.
Find Rebecca on Twitter @writetorebecca or blogging at http://travelwritechange.com