Associates

Jessica Widner is a writer and academic. She holds a PhD in English Literature (Edinburgh, 2022) and an MSC in Creative Writing (Edinburgh, 2018, with distinction) as well as a BA in English Literature (Toronto, 2013). Her doctoral thesis, “Dream, Fantasy, and Illness: Exploring the Carnal Imaginary” considered carnal hermeneutics and phenomenology in modern and contemporary women’s fiction by writers such as Han Kang, Mary Gaitskill and Anaïs Nin. Her research interests include carnal phenomenology and hermeneutics, post-structuralism, feminist, queer, and post-colonial theories.

 Her debut novel, Interiors, was released in October 2022 by the87press. Her short fiction has appeared most recently in chewgulpspit, Extra Teeth, Gutter Magazine, and The Cardiff Review. She was the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for Open Book Reading. Jessica has many years of experience teaching both creative writing and literature in both academic and creative settings. She emphasises a holistic approach to writing, reading, and critique, led by the conviction that to become a good writer, one must first be a good reader. She aims to create learning experiences that are inclusive and engaging spaces for learning and discussion, in which each participant can grow and feel more confident in their practice.

Dr Simon Cassam is a Staffordshire based writer and tutor. Having already acquired a BA in English with Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing from Keele University, Simon has just earned his PhD in Creative Writing. With an avid interest in fictional representations of trauma, Simon completed a thesis interrogating the current trends in trauma fiction. He explored the pessimistic way in which trauma is seen as eternally cyclical, questioned whether healing is possible and how it would be achieved, and also examined the role of perpetrators in the perpetuation of trauma. Simon is currently seeking publication for his novel Franklyn’s Dog an excerpt from which has been published as a short story in Keele University’s The Things We Write anthology. Having been an online English tutor for over five years, Simon is well practiced in delivering dynamic content through an online medium.

Dr. Pritha Kejriwal is an academic, poet, writer and editor, based in London. She earned her Doctorate in Comparative Literature from Birkbeck, University of London. Her thesis looked at the works of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda through the lens of mathematical ontology developed by the French philosopher Alain Badiou. She works as as Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, where she teaches an Undergraduate module titled, ´Key Thinkers in Media Theory’. She was also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Kindle Magazine (www.kindlemag.in), which was a widely acclaimed and highly respected socio-political journal published in India from 2008-2018. Under her leadership, the magazine won various awards, including a United Nations award for gender sensitivity twice. Her poetry has been published in various Indian and International journals and anthologies. Her current projects include two books of poems titled, ‘Who Killed the Dead Sea’ and ‘The book of pomegranate stars’ and a soon to be published monograph based on her PhD thesis, titled ‘Badiou, Neruda and the Subjectivised Object’.  

Laura is a writer and teacher based in Henley on Thames, UK. She has a BA in English and Creative Studies from the University of Portsmouth and an MA in Writing from NUIG. In 2022, she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Reading. She is especially interested in prose, in particular the novel, with a focus on Historical Fiction and exploring the fine line between fact and fiction. Her thesis dissected the creative process of writing from research and fictionalising history and considered the varying perspectives, or memories, involved in storytelling and how they affect the retelling of a story. 

Laura is an experienced writer of both fiction and non-fiction with short stories and articles published in the UK and Ireland, both online and in print. Her work was also long listed for the Over the Edge Writer of the Year and she was invited to read as part of The Lonely Voice award in Dublin.  She has also worked as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at The University of Reading, as well as teaching in her local community at The Henley College, The Henley School of Art and Henley Library. 

Lucie is a multi-award-winning writer and tutor based in County Durham. Her memoir Life After You was published in 2014 by Penguin Random House. Based on her award-winning blog Wife After Death (Blog North Awards 2013), it is a Sunday Times best seller and was a Richard and Judy Autumn Book Club pick 2015.Her pilot TV script Wife After Death won the Best New Comedy Script in the All3Media New Voice Awards 2021 and is now in development with Objective Fiction and Channel 4. Lucie’s novel The Mother was one of the final four in Mslexia’s Novel Competition 2020, and in 2018 she was awarded one of three Northern Writers’ Awards for Fiction for her novel-in-progress The Song of Annie Chapman.Her short stories – ‘T-Shirt Weather’ and ‘Late Night Final’ – were shortlisted in the Guardian Short Story competition and Soho House Magazine respectively. Lucie holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University [Title: Notions of Loss in Writing Creative Non-Fiction, and ‘The Sculptress’ , a novel.] She has taught creative writing for many years, including at the universities of Leeds and Newcastle.

Sam Egelstaff grew up in the North East and is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Bangor University, North Wales. She has recently been awarded the Foyle’s Teacher Trailblazer 2022 Award by The Poetry Society, funded by the Foyle Foundation and The Arts Council England. She has also been awarded the Future Generations Wales Changemaker 100 Champion for her empowering of community voices and her management of creative, resilience projects across North Wales.

Her poetry was published in Counterpoints: A Response to RS Thomas and was performed at the RS Thomas Festival. Her contemporary polysemic sonnets are published in Sonnets for Shakespeare by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and was anthologised to provide funds for The Globe Theatre during Covid Lockdown. She performed her sonnets at the BritGrad Festival 2020. Her poetry has also been published by Frosted Fire Press, Wildfire Words, Mookychick, Cape Magazine and IceFloe Press, and they are read internationally. She regularly performs her poetry at online festivals, from Cheltenham Poetry Festival to Evesham Poetry Festival and she is a Poetry Society member of the German Poetry Stanza. Her recent poetry is to be published in an anthology in Germany in the forthcoming year.

Sam’s poem ‘Knot,’ published in The Medusa Anthology of Feminist Fiction is included in the Lunar Codex– a digital library of 6000 artists’ work that will be launched by SpaceX in 2024. This ‘Museum on the Moon’ will be placed within three lunar locations by NASA’s Artemis Rover. ‘Knot’ will be placed in the Polaris (Southern Region) digital capsule and will be available to all travellers on the moon and beyond. We look forward to the launch party!

Sam lives in the Conwy Valley, Snowdonia, with her three children, her husband, her cat and two guinea pigs.

Lauren is an award winning poet, musician, and Creative Writing lecturer who grew up in Manchester. She graduated from Keele University with a PhD in Creative Writing with English funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, United Kingdom. The AHRC is a prestigious funding agency supporting research excellence and innovation for postgraduate Doctoral study in the field of arts and humanities. She graduated from Keele University with a Masters degree in Creative Writing. She graduated from Manchester Metropolitan
University with a Bachelors Honours Degree in English and American Literature.
She graduated from The University of Manchester with a Post Graduate
Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) funded by The University of
Manchester. Her debut collection, ‘Lucy’s Evening’ featuring a selection of her
Masters research was awarded The Roy Fisher Prize for Poetry, by Keele
University, a prize endowed by former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and, an
award given in honour of distinguished poet and former lecturer Roy Fisher –
who taught at Keele University from 1971 to 1982. Singular poems from Lauren’s
AHRC Doctoral thesis, ‘4:23 PM, Relaxant’ have been published internationally,
culminating in performances and readings at the Basquiat: Boom for Real
exhibition at The Barbican Centre in London, performances at the Downtown
Music Gallery, Max Fisch and Ceremony in New York, performances at OTOOTO
and Permian in Tokyo, Japan. She collaborated with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on her arts practice-based research titled ‘Meetings’ for William Burroughs centenary with saxophonist David McLean supporting Beat poet Michael Horowitz. Lauren mentored Guildhall School of Music & Drama undergraduates through the Guildhall School of Music residency, as well as mentored English and Film Bachelors undergraduates at The Brilliant Club for The University of Sussex mentorship programme, acted as a Creative Writing mentor for the Children’s Portico Prize for Literature and designed courses and delivered Creative Writing masterclasses for The Seren Award as well as The Scholar’s Programme. Lauren remains an active participant in Britain’s
experimental music scene and has performed her poetry with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, Masahiro Tobita of Envy, Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and The Jerks to name a few. She opened for Bohren Club De Gore as WATER at Islington Mill Gallery. She is the resident poet of the Tombed Visions ensemble and one half of Secret Fields with Chris Haslam of GNOD, she has performed and practiced her music and poetry amongst a whole host of musicians from the jazz, electronic and experimental music communities across the country since 2009. Since 2017, Lauren has released ten albums of her poetry interwoven with improvisational music for an array of international record labels: Box Records, Tombed Visions Records, Artificial Head Records, Fortissimo Records, Samarbeta and Tesla Tapes. Her work won the Creative Manchester Poetry Competition at The University of Manchester. She was
shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for Poetry, as well as the Bare Fiction Prize for Flash Fiction. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies since she was 15 years old such as Bare Fiction Anthology, Milk & Honey Zine, SWAMP journal, Samarbeta Music Residency, among others. She is also the founder of Burn Into Sleep Press, publishing confessional poetry. During her academic career, Lauren has been mentored by award winning creative-critical academics: Dr James Sheard, Professor Michael Symmons Roberts, Professor Scott McCracken and Dr Nicholas Bentley.

Joshua Smith is a writer, editor, linguist, and teacher based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from West Chester University’s Bachelor of English Literature program—wherein he concentrated on the aesthetic value within the works of Shakespeare and James Joyce—he attained a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Spalding University’s School of Professional and Creative Writing. He is a dedicated humorist, satirist, and surrealist with a particular interest in rhetoric, prose, and finely written wit.

His (much) earlier short fiction, poetry, and journalism are featured in such venues as STORGY Magazine, Litbreak Magazine, The Literati Magazine, and The Communitarian. His debut comedy novel, The Dream Journal of J.D. Solomon, was published in 2021, became a best-seller, and was finally converted into an audiobook in November of 2023. Most recently, his collection of humorous essays, The Ways to Wit: An Invitation to the Tradition of Humorous Wit, which analyzes the elements of wit found in such eminent humorists as Evelyn Waugh, Mark Twain, and P.G. Wodehouse, was published in June of 2024. He is also the proprietor of the website The Ways to Wit, whereon he undertakes humorous investigations on the curiosities of English language and its literature.

Niamh Twomey is a poet and teacher who grew up in Co. Clare and is currently living in Belfast. She graduated from University College Cork with a BA in English and French and an MA in Creative Writing. She is currently working on her PhD in Poetry as Creative Practice at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast. The focus of her thesis is ecology in contemporary Irish poetry. She has spent many years teaching across Ireland and in France.Her work won the 2023 Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition and the 2022 Trim Poetry Competition. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Fools for Poetry Chapbook Competition, as well as the Well Review Pamphlet Award. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Rattle, Banshee, Local Wonders: Poems of Our Immediate Surrounds, Southword, Hold Open the Door and New Irish Writing, among others.
She has been mentored by Grace Wells through the Munster Literature Centre and Jessica Traynor thanks to an Arts Council bursary. She has read her work at numerous festivals and poetry readings across Ireland. She is also the editor of Hive, a journal of nature poetry from Ireland.

Dr Alexandra (Alex) Grunberg is an American born and Glasgow based author, poet, and screenwriter. She earned her DFA and MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Her doctoral thesis included a mixed media research essay on hybrid identity as well her novel Merchant, a post-apocalyptic retelling of The Merchant of Venice, which will be published by Gold SF and MIT Press in 2024. Over fifty of her speculative fiction short stories have been published in various online magazines and anthologies, including publications in professional markets certified by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She has over twenty published poems. Her poetry has been longlisted for the Ivan Juritz Prize and Frontier Poetry Prize and her fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the resident screenwriter for Magic Dog Productions where she has written and collaborated on horror, comedy, and documentary films. You can learn more at her website, alexandragrunberg.weebly.com, and follow her reading recommendations on her Instagram book blog, @5starbookreviews.

Mahon McCann is an Irish playwright, author and philosopher. He received his BA in Philosophy from University College Dublin and his MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast and is currently completing his PhD on “the ethics of the attention economy”, for which he was awarded the DCU School of Theology and Philosophy scholarship 2022. In creative writing, his plays have been performed in the Lyric Theatre, Queen’s Film Theatre, Seamus Heaney Centre in Belfast, Rua Red Gallery, The New Theatre Temple Bar and awarded the Fringe Lab Fifty in Dublin. His debut collection of short stories, ‘The Man with a Mirror Face,’ debuted in the top one hundred on Amazon short stories category and is currently ranked 4.9 stars in reviews. His writing has been published in numerous magazines and journals, including RTE, The Honest Ulsterman, The Cold Coffee Stand, Shady Grove Literature LA and Goblin Skateboard Magazine. He regularly teaches creative writing, working with Fighting Words NI for over four years, and has created and delivered courses at DCU and CTYI (Center for Talented Youth Ireland). He is passionate about helping writers discover their voice and master craft and technique skills to tell powerful stories.

My name is Fiona Stafferton, and I have been living in Achill Island, County Mayo for the past 2 years. I come from a bilingual household, with English and German parents, and grew up in London, I was privileged to attend the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, in South Kensington; where I sat my ‘A’ Levels in French, German and Spanish, and then went to the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, also in London, where I did a 2 year bilingual French and English Secretarial and Commercial course. I went on to work as a bilingual German/English P.A. for a German theatrical production company, and then worked as a bilingual Spanish/English secretary/in-house translator, in an international veterinary pharmaceutical company in Hertfordshire. I would class myself as fully trilingual in English, French and German, with a good knowledge of Spanish.

In 1993, I became a private tutor, teaching French to children from the age of 3 upwards, primary school pupils, and adults. I also tutored adults in Spanish and secondary school pupils in German.

In 2002, my family and I moved to France, where we spent 21 years. I worked in the French public education system, teaching English and German at secondary school level. I also spent 7 years working with Special Needs pupils in mainstream primary and secondary schools, and taught French to English adults living in France.  I am currently tutoring French to secondary school pupils in Achill.

Dr Héctor Muiños is a Dublin-based writer and lecturer. He holds an MA (Dublin City University, 2019) and a PhD (Dublin City University, 2024), both in Creative Writing. His doctoral thesis, which was awarded a DCU School of English Doctoral Research Scholarship, explored from both a creative and a theoretical perspective how characters based on figures of the past are created in historical fiction. He is the winner of the 2015 Fundación Aquae flash fiction competition, and his short stories have appeared in both Irish and international literary journals, including Stanchion, Púca Magazine, HOWL and Tint Journal, among others.

Héctor has been a lecturer in Creative Writing at DCU for the past four years, delivering lectures on the craft and leading workshops where theory is put into practice. He has also been a guest lecturer at DCU’s MA in Creative Writing programme as well Boston University’s undergraduate programme.

Ashika Ann Mammen is a postgraduate at the University of Limerick, pursuing an MA in Creative Writing (2023-2024). She holds a BA Triple Major in Journalism, Psychology, and Optional English (2016-2019) as well as an MA in English and Cultural Studies (2019-2021), after which she worked as a Creative Content Writer for Cobalt Experiential Marketing Pvt. Ltd. (2021-2023), in Bangalore, India. In 2018, she interned at The Mind Research Foundation, where she attended detailed discussions of therapy intakes, which facilitated her course on the study and analysis of mental disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association. She earned a certification for having her research paper published by the International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities. The paper was based on Queer Ecologies, titled, The Portrayal of Queerness in Malayalam Films Volume 9, Issue 5, May 2021. She was also an active part of the Editing Team of The Ogham Stone Literary Journal 2024.

Christina Hennemann is a poet, writer and translator. Originally from Germany, she’s found her home on the West Coast of Ireland. She holds a BA in English Literature & Linguistics and Politics & Society. After earning her Master of Education, she taught in secondary schools before she transitioned into full-time writing, editing and tutoring. Her poetry chapbook “Leafing” won the Cerasus Poetry Prize (2024). Her second book “Witch/Womb” (BookHub Publishing, 2024) was funded with an Agility Award from Arts Council Ireland. She received The Nassau Review’s Doyle Award for Creative Nonfiction and won the Luain Press Poetry Prize. Her poetry was highly commended in the Black Cat Poetry Competition & the Stephen Spender Prize, as well as longlisted in the National Poetry Competition. She received several Best of the Net nominations for her prose and art. Her work appears in Poetry Ireland, Poetry Wales, The Moth, Southword, The Belfast Review, Anthropocene, York Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is currently focusing on her debut novel. You can follow her work on her website: www.christinahennemann.com or Instagram and X: @chr_writer 

Luke Malone is a freelance filmmaker and video editor who has worked on various community film projects, professional shoots, and indie documentaries. He has also published research papers in several academic journals and presented his work at conferences including the Irish Screen Studies Seminar and IASIL. His published research includes explorations of narrative theory, the depiction of women in modern media, and otherness in cinema. His experience as a tutor and lecturer at third-level encapsulates the fields of media studies, communications, and academic writing.

Luke has recently completed his PhD studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr Daithí Kearney and Dr Kelly McErlean. His thesis focused on how modern cinema engages with and adapts mythology, reworking ancient stories for contemporary audiences and using myth to explore ideas that still resonate today.

Dr. Jessica Brown is a poet, writer, and teacher. In 2021, Jessica completed a PhD in Creative Writing. Her education also includes a BA from Anderson University, an MA in English from Boston College, an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University, and a Certificate in Spiritual Formation from Talbot School of Theology. Finding it a joy to work with other writers, Jessica has taught writing classes for many years, including at workshops, festivals, and primary schools. Jessica’s essays, stories, and articles have appeared in several print and online publications. Hello, Goodbye: A Cycle of Poems for Children debuted in 2023, and her children’s novel The River Boy was released in 2016 with her indie-press Finch and Fellow. Her poetry collection And Say was launched in 2019 with Revival Press.

Kasey is an enthusiastic and experienced teacher with a strong foundation in literature and creative writing. She holds a BA in English Literature from University College Dublin and an MPhil in Modern and Contemporary Literary Studies from Trinity College Dublin. Kasey has a particular interest in Irish history and storytelling, which she integrates into her teaching to offer students a rich, culturally aware perspective. With a background in teaching students of diverse ages and backgrounds, Kasey has guided learners from direct provision settings to Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, and undergraduate levels. Her experience as a TEFL-certified English language teacher has also enhanced her ability to adapt to different learning styles, making her an approachable and effective instructor.
At MKCW, Kasey aims to help each student find their voice and develop their storytelling skills in a supportive and encouraging environment. Her classes blend literary exploration with interactive writing exercises, inspiring creativity while building confidence and technical skill.

Rita Demaria is living proof that creativity is a fluid endeavour. Born in Bologna, Italy, after completing her Law studies at the University of Bologna, she decided to switch her professional focus to literary translation and, most importantly, to opera singing, studying under the mezzo-soprano Katja Lytting. Rita performed around Italy for a while as a spinto soprano, still pursuing her passion for writing. She won various Italian writing competitions. In 2015, she and her colleagues won the Tempesta Film Screenwriting Competition with their screenplay LOOKING FOR FUN, whose rights where purchased by RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana), the Italian national broadcasting network. In 2019, Rita switched careers to language tutor (both in English and Italian), with the objective of helping her students find their voice in the world, whether by learning a different language or by learning how to sing opera. Right now, Rita lives in Donegal and, while teaching, she still pursues her writing career by focusing on writing scripts for various voice actors on Patreon and YouTube. But, most of all, she has found a way to combine her love for narrating and improvising by being a forever Dungeon Master for all her Dungeons&Dragons players. She has run her own original campaigns, based on the D&D 5e system, at Irish conventions such as Gaelcon and AthVentureCon, obtaining excellent results.

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Edmund studied English, Cultural & Media Studies at IADT from 2002-2006 He  has postgraduate qualifications in Cinematography from SICA in Buenos Aires and Television and Radio Broadcast Production from IADT. Edmund has several years experience of teaching learners of all ages.

Aoife Holohan is a writer, editor and teacher from Co.Mayo. She completed her interdisciplinary BA at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her primary field of study was stylistics, an area of applied linguistics which combines linguistic analysis with literary criticism. She has presented her work at conferences and seminars across Europe. Her MA in creative writing is from the University of Limerick. 

Aoife has a background in editing. She has worked on several literary journals, most recently The Ogham Stone, published in 2024. She has also helped create and edit textbooks for young ESL learners. Her work embraces creative expression as a pedagogical approach to language development. Alongside her time in the publishing industry, Aoife was a teacher in Beijing and Hong Kong. She delivered workshops and tutorials at Tsinghua University. She has also taught English and writing to learners of all ages, from kindergarten up.

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Sofia is a talented artist and graphic designer. Her journey began with an eight-year course at the Repin Art School, where she acquired fundamental skills and knowledge. She then completed her bachelor’s thesis on designing and illustrating a children’s colouring book on horse breeding. Since 2019, Sofia has been teaching painting and riding, combining her two passions. She successfully led the creative project “Move Around” and managed the drawing studio “Ohra.” Throughout her career, Sofia has participated in various painting and graphic design competitions, such as Pangram, Slanted Publisher, Zerowaste, and 4th Block.
Sofia has completed courses in design thinking, interactive web design, UX design, and digital marketing, which have significantly expanded her professional skills and opportunities. She is proficient in various drawing styles and techniques. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s degree in Art Therapy, aiming to broaden her knowledge and apply art in psychological practice, as our emotional state is directly connected to our physical well-being. Additionally, she has skills in first psychological aid, enabling her to effectively support people. Her personal experience and numerous workshops have allowed Sofia to develop her unique approach to students, fostering their creativity and artistic thinking at their own pace, without pressure. Her main goal is to help you see and understand the world better through art and pencil.