SCOTTISH BPOC WRITERS NETWORK - Key Persons
Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the author of the poetry collection Another Way to Split Water. In 2023, she won the Nan Shepherd Prize for her nonfiction debut A Beautiful and Vital Place, forthcoming with Canongate. Her other works include pamphlets Hinge and Faces that Fled the Wind, and the collaborative essay Second Memory co-authored with Pratyusha. Alycia is co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Program, and teaches on the Creative Writing master's programme at the University of Cambridge. She has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and is the recipient of several awards, including the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award.
Job Titles:
- Community and Events Manager from Summer 2019 - March 2021 - Visit Andrés' Website
Job Titles:
- Admin & Media Support from Summer 2020 - March 2021 - Visit Bhavika 's Website
Bhavika Govil was our Admin & Media support from Summer 2020 - March 2021- visit Bhavika's website.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director from August 2020 to December 2021 - Visit Dean 's Website
Dean Atta was our Co-Director from August 2020 to December 2021 - visit Dean's website.
Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet, playwright, performer, experienced workshop facilitator, and Edinburgh Makar 2021-2024. Her poetry has been published widely and her poem, Scotland, you're no mine, was selected by Roseanne Watt as one of the Best Scottish Poems 2019. The Drift, her autobiographical play, toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotland's Season 2019. In 2020, she was selected by Owen Sheers as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. In 2020, she was also selected as one of the Scottish Voices for BBC Writers' Room. Her second lyric play Lament for Sheku Bayoh premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2021. Hannah is an Associate Artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award 2022. Her poetry collections, Salt, Blood, Spring and Unwritten: Women are published by Birlinn.
Jay Gao is our Co-Founder of SBWN and worked with us from 2018 to Summer 2020 - visit Jay's website.
Jeda Pearl Lewis is a disabled Scottish Jamaican writer and poet. In 2022 she was shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Writers Award and longlisted for the Women Poets' Prize. Art installations include Windrush Legacy Creative Reflections (2023), Caledonian Biotech Library, 3033 (Scottish Storytelling Centre, 2022) and Acts of Observation (Collective, 2021). Her poems and short stories are published by New Writing Scotland, Open Book, Not Going Back to Normal, Shoreline of Infinity, Aesthetica, Tapsalteerie, and her debut poetry collection, Time Cleaves Itself, is published by Peepal Tree Press.
Job Titles:
- Events and Editorial Manager
Kelly Kanayama is a pop culture and comics critic, editor and tutor with a PhD in comics research. Born and raised in Hawaii but now living in Dundee, she has written for The Independent, Media Diversified, Bitch Media, and Nerdist, among others. She has also spoken on panels at comic conventions in New York, Glasgow, and London. Her poetry has been published in various print and online outlets including Lighthouse Literary Journal, Room Magazine, Ink Sweat & Tears, and Gists and Piths.
Mae Diansangu is a Black queer spoken word artist, writer and performer from Aberdeen. She is co-founder of Hysteria, an arts platform that showcases women, non-binary and gender marginalised creatives. Her work has been published by 404 ink Magazine and she has been awarded commissions from the National Library of Scotland and StAnza. Mae is part of a network of Black community activists organising under BLM Scotland, and her work often centres on social justice themes. Mae writes in English and Doric.
Marjorie Lotfi is an award-winning poet, seasoned performer and facilitator of creative writing, and the Development Director of Open Book. Her poems have been included in Best Scottish Poems, won competitions and been performed live across Scotland and on BBC Radio 4/Radio Scotland. They have also been widely published, including in Being Human and journals such as The Rialto, Gutter, Rattle, Ambit and Magma, and have been commissioned for a number of anthologies. Refuge, poems about her childhood in revolutionary Iran, is published by Tapsalteerie. She is a winner of the inaugural James Berry Prize, and her first collection, The Wrong Person to Ask, is published by Bloodaxe Books.
Martha Adonai Williams is a writer, facilitator, producer, community organiser, black feminist and friend. Her practice departs to and returns from black feminist world-making, always, with regular layovers in front of trash tv or at the allotment. Her work considers the wilderness and margins as sites of resistance, refusal and homecoming. She works with writing and storytelling as therapeutic tools and as methods for community building. Her recent work has been shown as part of Fringe of Colour films and published in MAP magazine. She runs call&response black feminist writing community, programmes for Glasgow Zine Library and curates SBWN's annual Metaphors for a Black Future programme.
Job Titles:
- Admin
- Communications Manager
- Canadian Writer
Nailah King is a Canadian writer now living in Scotland. She is also the founder of The Content Witches, a storytelling studio. Her work has been published in Feels Zine, GUTS Magazine, The Humber Literary Review, This Magazine, Transition Magazine and Carousel Magazine.
Job Titles:
- Community Manager from June 2022 to August 2023 - Visit Nasim 's Website
Job Titles:
- Co - Director
- Austrian - Nigerian Writer, Organiser
Titilayo Farukuoye is an Austrian-Nigerian writer, organiser and anti-racist educator based in Glasgow. Striving to dismantle oppressive structures, Titilayo interrogates race and gender constructs and explores climate justice and community care. Titilayo curated Our (In)visible Strengths (2018), a visual exhibition celebrating Scottish African and Afro-Caribbean community. Their poetry featured at Fringe of Colour Films and 2020 Mixtape: Writers of Colour Audio Anthology. Media4Change and Future News Worldwide have recognised Titilayo's journalistic work. Titilayo is a winner of the 2022 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and their debut pamphlet In Wolf's Skin is published by Stewed Rhubarb Press.