Our Team and Board

Shirley Ahura (she/her) is a writer, author, culture researcher and creative storyteller. A journalist by night, she documents diaspora culture from across the Black Atlantic. Covering everything from music and migration to postcolonial and pop culture, her words have been featured in British Vogue, Huck, Mixmag, Skin Deep and The Face; and published in the following collections: Destination Dancefloor: A Global Atlas of Dance Music and Club Culture From London to Tokyo, Chicago to Berlin and Beyond (2022), What the Water Gave Us (2023) and Anthology (2025). Her work has taken her from London to Lagos, Nigeria; Kampala, Uganda via Kingston, Jamaica and beyond — with footprints as a strategist, copywriter, choreographer and creative director informing her world-building every step of the way.

Courtney Conrad is a Jamaican poet. Her debut pamphlet I Am Evidence is published by Bloodaxe Books. She is a winner of the Eric Gregory Award, Michael Marks Award, Bridport Prize Young Writers Award and Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Prize. Shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize, the Manchester Poetry Prize, the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award’s Poetry Prize, the Bridport Poetry Prize, Derby Poetry Festival Poetry Prize and the Poetry Wales Pamphlet competition. She is currently a Cave Canem fellow and an alumna of The London Library Emerging Writers Programme, Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, Barbican Young Poets, Obsidian Foundation Fellow, Griots Well Collective, Poet in the City Producers Programme, Out-Spoken Press Emerging Poets Development Scheme and Roundhouse Poetry Collective. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Magma Poetry, Propel Magazine, Poetry Wales, The White Review, Stand Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, Bath Magg, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner and Callaloo.

Fisola Kelly-Akinnuoye (she/her) is a writer-producer and facilitator working across theatre and literary spaces. She has worked with The Old Vic Theatre, China Plate, The Almeida, Gate Theatre and the Jericho Prize. She co-founded Wordstew Magazine – a literary publication and collective that platforms and nurtures black writers. Her aim is to co-create communities that nurture sustainable productions of creativity in all formats and champion storytelling from diverse voices.

Ruth Harrison HRSL, Director at London Writers Centre since 2015, has worked in the not for profit literature sector for over 30 years. Passionate about widening people’s engagement with literature and supporting writing talent, she is responsible for leading the charity artistically and strategically to make a difference to writers and communities in London.

Tom MacAndrew is a freelance producer specialising in poetry, spoken word and live literature. He has delivered work for clients including BBC, the British Library, British Museum, CLPE, Forward Arts Foundation and World Book Day. His work spans education programmes, podcast series, commissions, publications, and touring live shows nationally and internationally with poets including Joelle Taylor, Joshua Idehen and John Hegley. He is the producer of Out-Spoken, London’s largest regular poetry night, and in partnership with London Writers Centre he runs Deptford Literature Festival. Tom is a trustee of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

Bobby Nayyar is a programme manager and writer. He started his career in publishing at Faber and Faber, Little, Brown Book Group and founded his own imprint, Limehouse Books. He has also managed Equality in Publishing and Wasafiri Magazine’s digital presence. At London Writers Centre he works on the London Writers Awards, Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards, Early Career Bursaries for London’s Writers, Lewisham Writes and regular programme of workshops and events. He has written two novels and a collection of poetry.

Aimée Felone is the former Managing Director of Knights Of, winner of Children’s Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards 2022. She founded the multi award-winning inclusive publisher which was focused on bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront of commercial children’s publishing, an unwavering focus on their intended readership for each book and engaging with gatekeepers across the industry. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of Round Table Books, Brixton’s only intersectional bookshop and a space open to all.

Gita Ralleigh is a poet, writer and NHS doctor born to Indian immigrant parents in London. She has been published by Wasafiri, Bellevue Literary Review, Magma Poetry,Under The Radar and The Rialto among others. She teaches creative writing to science undergraduates at Imperial College and has an MA in Creative Writing and an MSc in Medical Humanities. Her debut poetry collection A Terrible Thing was published by Bad Betty Press in 2020 and her pamphlet Siren is forthcoming in 2022 from Broken Sleep Books. She is a member of the Kinara poetry collective.

Alec is an accomplished arts organiser, photographer, and charity fundraiser with decades of experience working across the not-for-profit sector in arts organisations, UK-focussed charities and international NGOs on issues ranging from child trafficking to the challenges faced by young carers, homelessness in London’s East End and refugees in Afghanistan and the UK. Along the way he has organised photography exhibitions on the US civil rights movement and the lives of children who live with their families on the rubbish dump in Guatemala City, both successful in raising awareness of the issues and engaging wide audiences through events and media coverage. In his fundraising career he has raised millions of pounds for international, national and local organisations. He takes delight in his work writing proposals and has also published articles in the arts sector journal engage review and self-published opinion pieces related to my interests in current concerns in society and the voluntary sector.

Caleb is a British-Ghanaian writer and filmmaker, living in South East London. His debut novel, OPEN WATER, was a no 1. Times Bestseller, won the Costa First Novel Award and Debut Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Caleb‘s second novel, SMALL WORLDS was a Sunday Times Bestseller and won the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize. The TV adaptation of his first novel, OPEN WATER has been greenlit for an 8 part series by BBC One (Mam Tor/B-Side) with Caleb serving as lead writer, director and executive producer.