Writers
P.W. BRIDGMAN is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer of poetry and short fiction. In 2018 he was one of nine participants in the intensive writing summer school program offered by the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast—an experience that he says was a defining one in his writing life. Bridgman’s most recent book—a selection of poems entitled A Lamb—was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2018. It was preceded in 2013 by a selection of short fiction entitled Standing at an Angle to My Age (published by Libros Libertad). His poems and stories have appeared in Grain, The Antigonish Review, Pottersfield Portfolio, The Moth Magazine, The Glasgow Review of Books, Litro UK, Litro NY, The Honest Ulsterman, The High Window, The Bangor Literary Journal, The Galway Review, Ars Medica, Poetry Salzburg Review and other literary periodicals, e-zines and anthologies. Learn more at www.pwbridgman.ca.
MARTIN CATHCART FRODEN is originally from Sweden and has lived in Canada, Israel, Argentina, almost Finland and London. He has worked as a drummer, avocado picker, magazine editor and prison teacher. He won the 2015 Dundee International Book Prize with Devil Take the Hindmost (Freight Books), and his story ‘The Underwater Cathedral’ won the 2013 BBC Opening Lines competition. He is the 2017 National Trust Scotland Poet in Residence. He has just embarked on a doctorate in Creative Writing / Criminology / Architecture in Glasgow where he lives with his wife and three young children. lumawords.co.uk @mcathcartfroden
SRISHTI CHAUDHARY is a writer and a student of Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She studied English Literature and her favourite subject to write about is humans. She is currently working on her first novel.
DEFNE ÇIZAKÇA is a writer, editor, and lecturer based in Istanbul. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, where she worked on a historical and magically real novel about fin de siècle Κωνσταντινούπολη. This book won her the Gillian Purvis Award for New Writing, and a Helene Wurlitzer Writing Residency in New Mexico. She is currently expanding it for publication. Defne is also the editor-in-chief of Unsettling Wonder: A Journal of Folk and Fairy Tales and the co-editor of three books, Tip Tap Flat: A View from Glasgow (Freight, 2012), New Fairy Tales: Essays and Stories (Unlocking Press, 2013) and Miscellaneous: Writing Inspired by the Hunterian (The Hunterian, 2014). You can find her writing at www.defnecizakca.com. Twitter: @defnecizakca
MJ CORRIGAN is a Scottish writer and playwright based in Berlin. His blog is hashtag9dream.wordpress.com and he tweets from @corriganwriter.
ROB DORAN has been writing, teaching and directing theatre in Queensland, Australia for over 20 years. His recent productions include: Spirit of the Lore (ACPA / QPAC / Brisbane Festival 2013), Battle Scarred Phallic Wounds (2014), Orion’s Way (2014), Agender (2014), Assumptions (2015), Mortality (2016), Polity (2016), and Hunting Phia (2016). Rob trained with master teacher Lyn Kidd and developed the Diploma of Film, Television and Theatre Acting, accredited under the Australian Qualifications Framework. He taught at The Actors Workshop Australia for 20 years and has managed other vocational colleges across the creative industries. He has been Head of Vocational Education and Training for QANTM College and SAE Australia, Deputy Director of the Australian Dance Performance Institute, and Training and Artistic Director of the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. Rob’s areas of teaching expertise include acting technique, improvisation, script writing, acting for film and television, and acting for theatre.
OMER TEVFIK ERTEN has been taking photographs since 2011, and has prepared documentary series on gender, identity, urban transformation and the trans community. He is an activist for trans rights and one of the founding members of Pembe Sanat (Pink Art), a platform aiming to bring visibility to the trans and sex worker community through the arts. He works and lives in Istanbul. www.omertevfikerten.com
TENDAI HUCHU’S first novel The Hairdresser of Harare was released in 2010 to critical acclaim, and has been translated into several languages. Between projects, he translates fiction between the Shona and English languages. His new novel is The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician. Find him @TendaiHuchu or on www.tendaihuchu.com.
CHIN LI, born and brought up in Hong Kong but now living in Scotland, has published short fiction and other work in Confluence, Glasgow Review of Books, Gnommero, Gutter, Ink Sweat & Tears, Litro and MAP, and has turned some writings into audio or live performance pieces, the most recent of which is an audio short story, “The Feather and the Hand”, broadcast by the Glasgow-based art radio station Radiophrenia at 9.30 am on 20th May 2019.
ALASDAIR MACQUARRIE studied English and Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. After graduating he went on to study at the University’s writing school. He now lives and works in Edinburgh where he is working on a collection of Edinburgh based short stories. Twitter: @innsegall
GERARD McKEEVER is a writer and academic based in Thornhill, Dumfries & Galloway. He is currently publishing a series of short stories, while writing a novel set on the Solway coast (see gerardmckeever.co.uk). Gerard is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Glasgow, where he completed a PhD in English Literature in 2014. He publishes a variety of research on the subject of Scottish Romanticism. Twitter: @gmckeeverwriter
CALLUM MCSORLEY is a writer based in Aberdeenshire. He graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2013 with a degree in English, Journalism & Creative Writing, and in 2014 was selected for the Hermann Kesten Writing Scholarship in Nuremberg. His short stories have appeared in several journals and anthologies, including Gutter, and he writes book reviews for British Fantasy Award-nominated (2018) sci-fi magazine Shoreline of Infinity.
HELMI BEN MERIEM is a Tunisian fiction writer and a researcher of Somali literature. His short stories have appeared in Feminist Spaces, Blue Minaret, Scarlet Leaf Review, Theories of Her: an Experimental Anthology, and Thema among others. He has recently finished writing an epistolary novel entitled Good Nights Letters.
LAURA MUETZELFELDT is a teacher, writer and silversmith who lives in Glasgow. She has been published in journals such as The International Literary Quarterly, Bandit Fiction, Foxglove Journal, and Ink, Sweat and Tears. Her story, ‘Anna on the Wing’, was highly commended in The Federation of Writers Scotland Competition and her story, ‘Sunbeams’ received an honourable mention in the Momaya Short Story Competition 2018. She also writes features and reviews for The List magazine.
MARK MULHOLLAND is the author of the acclaimed novel A Mad and Wonderful Thing. His short fiction has been published in the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, France, Ireland, and India. Visit his website here. Visit his website here.
SIMON NAGEL is a screenwriter living in Edinburgh. A graduate of the American Film Institute, Simon has written and developed content for CNBC, Electus, Eli Roth’s Crypt TV, Toei Animation Japan, White Horse Pictures, and Indigenous Media. His short fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine and The Avalon Literary Review. You can read more of Simon’s work at www.simonnagelwrites.com.
DARRYL PEERS studies English Literature at the University of Aberdeen. He also works as a trainer in the technology industry. He is an active writer of short fiction and creative non-fiction and is also working on his first novel. He won the Non-Fiction Commendation in the 2017 Literary Lights Prize, run by the Grassic Gibbon Centre, for his essay ‘Mither Tap’. It is available to read here. Darryl grew up and was schooled in rural Aberdeenshire but moved to central Aberdeen at the age of 19, and later to Manchester in England. He returned to Aberdeen in 2016 for his studies.
COLIN CAMPBELL ROBINSON is an Australian artist living on the Isle of Bute. Colin’s work appears in a wide range of journals, most recently in Shearsman, BlazeVox, A Bad Penny Review, Creative Literary Studio, Molly Bloom and Empty Mirror. His book, Blue Solitude – a self portrait in six scenarios, has recently been published by Knives Forks and Spoons Press. For further information about Colin visit www.move-in-pictures.com.
SALLY ROBERTS is an English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh. In her spare time, she writes short stories and poetry (some of which have been published on daCunha, Hot Tub Astronaut and Cultured Vultures) and reviews gigs, comedy and theatre for TV Bomb. Twitter: @sallyejroberts
JESSICA SEQUEIRA is a writer and translator. She has published essays, stories and translations in the Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, Modern Poetry in Translation, Berfrois, Litro Magazine, Palabras Errantes, The Missing Slate, Ventana Latina and other publications. Twitter: @jess_sequeira
LEELA SOMA is an Indo-Scot writer living in Glasgow. She was commissioned to write a short story for Glasgow Women’s Library’s 21 Revolutions anthology and for Butterfly Rammy by Common Space. She has read at the Edinburgh Fringe. One of her short stories was published in The Scotsman newspaper.
REBECCA SMITH was brought up in the middle of nowhere in Cumbria and now lives in Central Scotland. She studied English and Media at Stirling University and then produced live radio for 10 years, almost purely living off adrenaline. She currently works in Radio Drama in Glasgow. She was mentored by Kirsty Logan after she was selected as part of the Womentoring Project. She has stories published in various magazines (Freak Circus, Tales from the Forest, Northwords Now, [Untitled], Dear Damsels). She has one son, a silver-grey cat and a penchant for biscuits and can be found on Twitter @beckorio.
ELISSA SOAVE is a Scottish writer. Publications and websites where her work has appeared include Structo, Literary Orphans, Gutter, Freak Circus, Burning House Press, The Guardian, New Writing Scotland (volume 8), and the textbook Working Words. She has had a story shortlisted for performance by Liars League London (2016) and another selected for performance at Glasgow CCA’s Stage to Page event (also 2016). She reached the semi-final of the Harpies Fechters and Quines All Woman Poetry Slam, organised by the Glasgow Women’s Library in June 2016. She is currently working on her first novel. You can find Elissa at elissasoave.wordpress.com or follow her on Twitter @elissa_soave.
JUDY UPTON works as a playwright and screenwriter, having won the George Devine, Verity Bargate and Croydon International Awards for playwriting. Her plays have been produced by the Royal Court, National Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Durham Gala and BBC Radio 4 among others. She has had an original TV drama shown on BBC1 two feature films produced. Judy has also had a number of short stories published. Her website is at www.judyupton.co.uk
KIRSTI WISHART gained a Ph.d in Scottish Literature at the University of St. Andrews many years ago and has been recovering in Edinburgh ever since. She was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2013 and this year is one of seven finalists in the Scottish Arts Club Short Story Awards. Her stories can be found in The Seven Wonders of Scotland anthology, New Writing Scotland, 404 Ink, The Evergreen and a quiet grove in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens courtesy of the Echoes of the City project. Say hello @KirstiW
DONNA RUTHERFORD is originally from Scotland, but has lived in England, Canada and New Zealand over the past 15 years. As a mother of four and a migrant far from home, her writing is inspired by the bonds of family and connection to a homeland. Her first two novels were written under the pen name Ruthie Morgan. She recently signed with Westwood Creative Literary Agency who are seeking a publisher for her most recent novel, From Where We Came.