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.

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 senior 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.

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.

Calissa Palmer is a Governance, Risk, and Compliance professional and writer working across poetry, screenwriting, theatre, and hybrid literary forms. Her work explores grief, Black British identity, memory, emotional survival, and power. She is an Obsidian Foundation Poetry Fellow, a Wild Seeds Writers Retreat alumna at the Center for Black Literature in New York, and a forthcoming resident at the Irish Writers Centre, where she is developing Around the World in 26 Wars: A Poetic Cartography of Conflict. Her poetry and screenwriting have been published and recognised internationally, including in Penumbra: Literary and Art Journal and across major international screenwriting competitions. Alongside her creative practice, she is a Director at Prime Data Compliance, bringing nearly two decades of experience in governance, risk, compliance, and data protection. Her expertise includes board-level governance, regulatory assurance, risk oversight,
and information governance, supporting organisations in navigating accountability, compliance frameworks, and complex decision-making environments. Calissa joins the Board of Trustees in 2026, bringing strategic governance expertise and creative insight to support the Centre’s mission to champion writers and expand access to literary opportunity.

James Reeves is a poet and campaigner from south London. He is the Campaign Manager at the 4 Day Week Foundation, where he leads their advocacy for a four-day, 32 hour working week. His career has spanned fundraising, communications and policy roles in climate, education and employment. James loves meditating, hiking in nature, writing, dancing with friends, and exploring food, arts and cultures of the world, but he’s never happier than when he has a football at his feet.

Jayne has a PhD in creative writing and is currently working on her first novel. She brings extensive experience in arts and heritage management alongside senior operational leadership in finance, HR and governance. She is co-founder of the Think Tank Operations Network, a cross-sector forum championing access to policy careers for under-represented groups, and co-founder and psychotherapist at Wild Counselling, a practice based in South East London specialising in walk-and-talk therapy.

Kester Brewin is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and an Associate Director at the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW). A secondary school teacher for over twenty years, he now helps lead IFOW’s work exploring the impact of AI and automation technologies on UK workers, with a particular focus on young people, and the creative industries. A graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing course, his fiction has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Dinesh Alliraja Prize. His latest non-fiction book is Godlike: a 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters. He is part of a fantastic writing group that has met monthly for over six years, and lives in Crystal Palace.

Michael is a writer, teacher and non-profit strategist based in East London. His debut children’s novel Ghostcloud won the East Sussex and Salford Book Awards and was named by Waterstones and BookTrust as one of the best children’s books of the year. As an LGBTQ+ dad of mixed British-Asian heritage, representation in children’s literature is something he cares about deeply – a thread that runs through his fiction, his school visits and his wider work. He is a trained primary school teacher who has taught in Tottenham and East London, and continues to run writing workshops with schools and organisations including Arvon, First Story and the Ministry of Stories. Alongside this, he has spent many years advising non-profits on strategy and revenue generation, working with education organisations to help them become more sustainable and inclusive.

Rukhsana has worked across publishing, literary organisations and literary agenting. Throughout her career, she has championed underrepresented writers and mentored emerging talent entering a sector where improving diversity and inclusion remains an ongoing challenge.

She has a degree in Physics and is currently working on her first book, and like many writers, occasionally suspects it might be easier to build a particle accelerator.