Poems by Hilary Elder

Hilary (she/her) was born, raised and lives in the Far North of England – though she has been to other places. She writes fiction and poetry for children and adults, runs workshops and does collaborative projects.

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Poems by Rob Walton

Rob Walton is a working class writer from Scunthorpe, who now lives in Whitley Bay.  His poems, flash fictions and short stories for adults and children have appeared in various anthologies and magazines in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. 

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Poems by Jane Thorp

Jane Thorp has had many poems published in magazines. She won the Yeovil Literary Prize for Poetry in 2023. She was shortlisted in The Plough Poetry Prize 2013, children’s category, and has been commended and shortlisted in other poetry prizes.

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Poems by Carson Wolfe

Carson Wolfe (they/she) is a Mancunian poet and winner of New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize (2023). Their work has appeared or is forthcoming with Rattle, The Rumpus, The North, New Welsh Review, and Evergreen Review.

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Poems by Di Slaney

Di Slaney lives in Nottinghamshire where she runs livestock sanctuary Manor Farm Charitable Trust and independent publisher Candlestick Press. She was the winner of The Plough Poetry Prize 2022 and Slipstream Open Poetry Competition 2023.

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Poems by Debi Knight

Debi Knight is a Neuro-diverse poet and short story writer based in West Yorkshire who considers herself a lifelong student. She writes the life she sees and feels around her – exploring connections between humans, nature and the effects of modern life on all.

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Poems by Rosie Garland

Rosie Garland is a writer and singer with post-punk band The March Violets, Rosie Garland has a passion for language nurtured by public libraries. Her poetry collection ‘What Girls do the Dark’ (Nine Arches Press) was shortlisted for the Polari Prize.

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Poems by Sarah Ziman

Sarah Ziman is a poet from Wales who likes cats, crisps, cake, reading and rhyme. She dislikes writing bios. She won the YorkMix Poems for Children Prize 2021, and has poems in The Caterpillar, The School Magazine, The Toy, PaperBound, Paper Lanterns, Tyger Tyger, Little Thoughts Press, The Dirigible Balloon, Cricket, and anthologies by Macmillan and Pomelo Books.

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Poems by Sam Szanto

Sam Szanto lives in Durham. Her collaborative pamphlet, ‘Splashing Pink’ was recently published by Hedgehog Press and is a Poetry Book Society Winter 2023 Pamphlet Choice. Her pamphlet ‘This Was Your Mother’ was one of the winners of the 2023 Dreich Slims Contest and will be published in 2024.

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Poems by Leigh Manley

Leigh Manley is a new poet from Wales. He likes watching rugby, drinking cups of tea, acting silly, and making up fun words and sentences! He is currently part of Literature Wales’ ‘Representing Wales’ writers’ development programme for 2023/24 and he’s had work published with The Dirigible Balloon. He is working on his first poetry collection for curious children and the young at heart.

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Poems by Michael Conley

Michael Conley is a poet and prose writer from Manchester, UK. His latest collection is a pamphlet published by Nine Pens, called “These Are Not My Dreams And Anyway Nothing Here Is Purple”. He was the recipient of the 2022 Peggy Poole Prize.

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Poems by Eibhlís Carcione

Eibhlís Carcione is a bilingual poet and children’s author from Cork, Ireland. Her three poetry collections in Irish, Tonn Chlíodhna (2015), Eala Oíche (2019), and Bean Róin (2023), are published by Coiscéim. She has won numerous awards for her poetry.

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Beans on Bread

We partnered with Damien John Kelly House, managed by Vitality Homes. Damian John Kelly House is an abstinence-based recovery living centre, for adult males based in Liverpool. Their aim is to provide recovery from addiction via arts, sport and culture, with the belief that they will lead to purpose, belonging and connection.

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Poems by Yanita Georgieva

Yanita Georgieva is a Bulgarian poet and journalist living in London. She is a recipient of theOut-Spoken Prize for Poetry and a member of the Southbank New Poets Collective. You can find her work in The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, bath magg, and elsewhere.

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Poems by Peter Pegnall

Peter has published eight collections of poetry and one book of translations. He has a new collection arriving in September. Peter has written obituaries for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, and blogged for both. He has written reviews for The Independent and The Catholic Herald and many more for literary magazines.

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Poems by Carole Bromley

Carole Bromley lives in York. Winner of 2022 Caterpillar Prize, she also has poems in Tyger, Tyger, Paper Lanterns, The Toy, Little Thoughts Press, Paperbound, The Dirigible Balloon, in anthologies from MacMillan, Emma Press and Nosy Crow as well as in her Smith/Doorstop collection for children, Blast Off!

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Poems by Susie Wilson

Susie is an autistic Scottish poet, living in Sheffield. She has been published widely in anthologies (including for Winchester, Gloucester and Shepton Mallet’s Competitions), commended by Fresher and Poets & Players, longlisted in The Rialto Nature Competition, appearing also recently in Envoi, Monofiction and Black Bough.

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Poems by David Willis

David has many voices and personalities; all of these are influenced by his dissociative identity disorder. He can assimilate voices and accents, even languages quickly. His alterscan influence the subjects chosen by them to write about.

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Poems by Charlie Bown

Charlie Bown is a children’s poet and author. She has two children’s anthologies published through Magic Daisy Publishing and two of her poems appear in the Chasing Clouds anthology from The Dirigible Balloon. Her debut children’s chapter book is due to be published by Ventorros Press in 2023.

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Poems by Susan Darlington

Susan Darlington’s poetry regularly explores the female experience through nature-based symbolism and stories of transformation. . It has been published in Dreich, Dream Catcher, One Hand Clapping, Hedgehog Press, and Ink Sweat & Tears.

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Poems by Reshma Ruia

Reshma Ruia is the author of two novels, Something Black in the Lentil Soup and Still Lives as well as a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness. Her poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, was awarded the 2019 Word Masala Award.

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Poems by Eleanor Brown

Eleanor loved writing poetry as a child and now enjoys writing poems for others to enjoy. She is a doctor by day, working to help children with developmental difficulties. Eleanor has had poems published by The Dirigible Balloon and Tyger Tyger Magazine.

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Poems by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan

Gayathiri is a Tamil poet and Sex Education facilitator. They are interested in how language shapes childhood and how we use it to queer the future. Gayathiri won the Faber & Andlyn Publisher’s Prize 2022, the Primadonna Fiction Prize 2021 and they were shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2022.

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Poems by Sarah Wimbush

Sarah Wimbush’s first collection, Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands (Bloodaxe, 2022) is rooted in Yorkshire with tales of childhood, colliery villages and Gypsies and Travellers. She is the recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award and author of prize-winning pamphlets.

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Poems by Steve Denehan

Steve Denehan lives in Kildare, Ireland with his wife Eimear and daughter Robin. He is the author of two chapbooks and four poetry collections. Winner of the Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and twice winner of Irish Times’ New Irish Writing.

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Poems by Catherine Olver

Catherine Olver is a writer and researcher with a PhD in children’s literature from the University of Cambridge. She has special interests in LGBTQ+ poetry and in how literature can help humans participate in their environments (whether urban or rural) with sensitivity and joy.

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Poems by JP Seabright

JP Seabright (she/they) is a queer writer living in London. They have three pamphlets published: Fragments from Before the Fall: An Anthology of Post-Anthropocene Poetry; the erotic memoir NO HOLDS BARRED, and GenderFux, a collaborative poetry pamphlet.

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Poems by HLR

HLR (she/her) is a prize-winning poet, working-class writer, and professional editor from North London. She is a commended winner of The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition 2021, and she also won The Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition 2021.

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Poems by Rhiannon Oliver

Rhiannon Oliver is an actress and poet from Cardiff.  As an actress, she has worked with companies such as BBC, Sky 1, The National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, National Theatre of Wales and Manchester Royal Exchange, as well as off Broadway and on UK and International tours. 

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Poems by Ian Parks

Ian Parks is the author of eight collections of poems, one of which was a Poetry Book Society Choice. He is the editor of Versions of the North: Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry and the Selected Poems of Harold Massingham.

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Poems by Oisín Breen

Oisín Breen is a poet, part-time academic in narratological complexity, and financial journalist, Dublin born Oisín Breen’s widely reviewed debut collection, ‘Flowers, all sorts in blossom, figs, berries, and fruits, forgotten’ was released March 2020.

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