Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career/published works or work-in-progress, including your Masters project(s)?

I am a writer from Hay-on-wye, currently based in West Yorkshire. For my final Masters project and under the supervision of Jean Sprackland, I explored the possibility of a more-than-human lyric through a series of poems. Since graduating from the Manchester Writing School, I have been shortlisted for a Northern Writers’ Award and Nine Arches Press’ Primers scheme. In 2020, I was awarded The Moth Magazine’s Nature Writing Prize. My debut pamphlet, Angola, America, won Mslexia’s Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2021 and is published by Seren.

Alongside my writing, I work at Lumb Bank, Arvon’s Writing House in West Yorkshire. I also deliver reading groups for wellbeing in criminal justice settings.

How do you think being part of the Manchester Writing School community has helped your writing career?

Being part of the Manchester Writing School taught me that writing is a craft to be honed and practised. The quality of my writing improved so much during the course; I learnt to whittle away and interrogate my own writing, and surprise myself. My supervisor gave me loads of encouragement to send work out to journals and prizes.

What did you find was your most valuable experience as part of the Manchester Writing School? What were the highlights?

Manchester Writing School has a starry line-up of excellent poets that I had long-admired, and their teaching skills were excellent too (which isn’t always the case!). Tutors such as Michael Symmons-Roberts and Karen Solie were incredibly encouraging whilst challenging us to take risks. It was very important for me to be guided by practising professionals, who fully understand the ups and downs of writing as a profession. The Writing School is such a warm and welcoming community. One of the highlights was taking part in the Rosamond Prize, an opportunity whereby Creative Writing students at MMU collaborate with composers from RNCM, creating new works. 

What advice would you give to students looking at studying at the Manchester Writing School, or just starting out on the course?

If you are looking for a strong community of fellow writers to be inspired by, challenged by and nurtured by, then the Manchester Writing School is the place. On the course, I tried to say ‘yes’ to as many different creative opportunities as possible, both within the Writing School and in the buzzy Manchester scene.