Past event - Benjamin Dorey writes poems that focus on communicating mad experiences. He is fascinated by the ways in which poetry provides a space in which mad thinking can be expressed with less risk of being pathologised or psychologically framed, and where form and musicality in language can work to nod toward the ineffable in ways prosaic language struggles to. His first pamphlet, a mad journey around the Seven Hills of Sheffield, was published by Spirit Duplicator in 2017, and his work has been also been anthologised and appeared in various journals. He occasionally self publishes poems, photographs and thoughts on benjamindorey.com . He is currently working on a PhD at the University of Sheffield part time, while also working in mental health services to deliver training around the language, narrative and recovery to NHS staff.
Loma is a Sheffield-based poet. She is inspired by place and the movement of people and often writes about how identity manifests in, and is altered by a person’s surroundings. She is currently working on her creative writing PhD looking at BIPOC contemporary poetry.
Veronica Fibisan (Dr) has recently completed a PhD at The University of Sheffield in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is Editor of the creative writing journal Route57, and ASLE-UKI Postgraduate and Early-Career Representative. She has notably published poetry in The Sheffield Anthology (Smith/Doorstop, 2012), CAST: The Poetry Business Book of New Contemporary Poets (Smith/Doorstop, 2014), Plumwood Mountain Journal (4.1), the Wretched Strangers Anthology (Boiler House Press, 2018), PAN (2019, 2020) and Voices for Change Anthology (2020).
Mark Lindsey was awarded his MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sheffield and is currently working on his first full collection of experimental, hybrid poetry. His writing uses prose poetry, poetic essays and collage to explore issues of fiction and truth, politics, history, misogyny, psychology and trauma. His research includes explorations of grief, the importance of the physical and its relation to truth in poetry and non-fiction and use of erasure as a method of exposure in the works of contemporary women poets. His work has been published in Pamenar Press Magazine and Route 57 and Mark is a founder member of the Sheffield-based writer’s group Cut Collective. He also has a very exciting project coming in the near future which he’s not yet able to talk about.
Ethel Maqeda is a Sheffield-based Zimbabwean writer and graduate of the University of Sheffield’s MA Creative Writing program. Her writing has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Wasafiri and several issues of the University of Sheffield’s creative writing journal, Route 57. A debut short story collection, Mushrooms for my Mother and Other Stories, made the 2020 S1 Leeds Literary Prize longlist. Her writing has also enjoyed some recognition elsewhere. Short story ‘Sisters’ reached finalist position in Myriad Editin’s First Drafts Competition in 2018, and flash essay ‘Ubuntu’ was runner up in Sunspot Literary Journal’s A Single Word Contest in 2020. Ethel started writing to keep a connection with the various places she calls home. Before that, she was a theatre artist who divided her time between the University of Zimbabwe’s Alfred Beit Hall and the communities in and around Harare and Zimbabwe. Lately, Ethel has reconnected with her theatre roots, working on a participatory performance and research project for young people from communities where arts engagement is low. For her day job, Ethel is a link worker for a community organisation that helps speakers of other languages to develop their functional English skills. She is also proudly the mother of two amazing young men. She loves laughing and loves dancing but loves dancing while laughing more.
A J Moore is a PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, researching the role of the archival drive and found materials in author interrogation of identity under the supervision of Agnes Lehoczky and Adam Piette. Her work has been published in Route 57, Beir Bua Journal and Blackbox Manifold. Her debut pamphlet, M(P)atriarchive is published by Beir Bua press. She is a founder member of Cut Collective Writers. Twitter: @AJMoore_70/@cutwriters.