notes on issue 10 contributors
Topher Allen is a poet from Jamaica. His work explores sexuality, Jamaican geography and the island’s cultural and historical experiences. He is an Obsidian Foundation Fellow whose work appears in Pree, Poetry London, Magma and elsewhere. Allen won the Poet Laureate of Jamaica: Louise Bennett-Coverley Prize for Poetry in 2019 and was shortlisted for the Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowship in 2022. Miguel Barretto García is a queer poet and spoken word artist of the diaspora. Their poems have been published in Poetry Northwest, RHINO Poetry, harana poetry, Wildness, Magma Poetry, TLDTD, Rattle, among others. They are a back-to-back finalist of the annual Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize with their manuscript, ambit, shortlisted in 2021 and their second manuscript, Kinder Sweet, shortlisted in 2022. Originally from the Philippines, they are currently living between London and Saint Louis, Missouri. Joan Cruz is a Filipina poet who migrated to the UK in 2014 to work for the National Health Service. She is a Modern Matron for International Nurses and a Specialist Nurse Practitioner. She is currently working on a collection of poems. Aviva Dautch’s poems have appeared in publications including Acumen, Modern Poetry in Translation, The North, The Rialto, The Spectator and The Poetry Review. She is the literary co-translator for BBC World Service Journalist Suhrab Sirat; her translation of his book-length poem ‘The Eighth Crossing’ about his refugee journey from Afghanistan was published by Exiled Writers Ink in 2021. Garfield Dsouza is a freelance writer/editor/teacher/podcaster. He studied Computer Engineering at Mumbai University and holds the CertTESOL from Trinity College London. He has designed blended elearning courses and technical documentation for the Tata Group and IBM; he recently completed a season of About What You Say: a podcast about words. His poems were published in the Language is a Queer Thing anthology published by Verve Poetry Press. Nirmal Kaur is a Hertfordshire-born, Wolverhampton-based poet. She works at a local school and at Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. She has taken part in performing her work at Wolverhampton Literature Festival, The Big City Radio, amongst others. Yahia Lababidi, Egyptian-American, is the author of ten books of poetry and prose. You can receive a contemplative daily quote from him, here. Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His play Wall received a rehearsed reading as part of Druid Theatre’s Druid Debuts 2020. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. Agata Palmer is a Bristol-based poet who grew up in Poland, matured in the UK, and writes dark and passionate poems about the human condition. Agata is the author of the poetry pamphlet From the Land of Marmite with Love published by Exiled Writers Ink. Agata’s poems have appeared in the Tangent Books anthology Weather Indoors and magazines, such as Alba by Ravena Press, Beyond Words, Eris & Eros Review and London Grip. Ernesto Sarezale is the pen name of a Basque poet based in London. Active in the poetry scene for many years as a performer and event promoter, he has recently completed a documentary about LGBTQ+ spoken word. His writing has been published in a variety of online and paper outlets, including a poetry chapbook called In The Name of the Flesh. Hans Jorg Stahlschmidt is a German-American artist and clinical psychologist living in Berkeley, California where he works as a psychologist in private practice, specializing in couples-therapy and as a building contractor. He is senior clinical faculty and trainer at the PACT Institute. He writes both in English and German and his work has been published in many magazines and anthologies in the US and Germany. Antonia Taylor is a British Cypriot writer, communications expert and poet. Her work has appeared in South, New Contexts, Blood Moon Poetry, Marble Magazine, Dear Reader and Indelible Literary Journal. She lives in Reading with her family and is a member of Reading Stanza. Heidi Williamson is an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. Her first collection, Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe Books, 2011), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize. The Print Museum (Bloodaxe Books, 2016) won the Poetry Category and the Book by the Cover award in the 2016 East Anglian Book Awards. Her third collection, Return by Minor Road, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2020. Jennifer Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong and now based in the UK. She has a creative writing PhD from Oxford Brookes University. Wong is the author of three poetry collections including 回家 Letters Home (Nine Arches Press, 2020), which was the Poetry Business Society Spring 2020 Wild Card Choice. She has taught creative writing at Poetry School, Oxford Brookes University, City Lit and was writer in residence at Wasafiri in 2021. Her book, Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic in early 2023. Eric Yip was born and raised in Hong Kong. His poems appear in The Poetry Review, The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. He won the 2021 National Poetry Competition and is currently an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. Annina Zheng-Hardy (she/her) is a poet living in London. Her poems and short fiction are forthcoming or have appeared in Joyland, Catapult, bath magg, Honey Literary, and elsewhere.