Poetics Lab

Meet the Mentors

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  Anthony Anaxagorou

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  Anthony Anaxagorou

  Anthony Anaxagorou, a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His work has won the RSL Ondaatje Prize, has been shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. He is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press.

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  Nii Ayikwei Parkes

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  Nii Ayikwei Parkes

  Nii Ayikwei Parkes, a Ghanaian-British writer, editor, socio-cultural commentator and performance poet who has won acclaim as a children’s author, poet, broadcaster and novelist. Nii has won Ghana’s national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, German and Arabic.

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  Ariana Benson

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  Ariana Benson

  Ariana Benson is a southern Black poet born in Norfolk, Virginia. They have received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Furious Flower Poetry Prize, the Porter House Review Poetry Prize, the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

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  Fiona Benson

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  Fiona Benson

  Fiona Benson, an English poet whose three collections have all been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her work has also won the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry’s Prize for First Full Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

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  Caroline Bird

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  Caroline Bird

  Caroline Bird, an English poet and playwright who published her first poetry collection at just 15 years old. Her work has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection and been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Prize and the Polari Prize. Bird’s work is celebrated for its masterful use of imagery, wit, and voice.

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  Malika Booker

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  Malika Booker

  Malika Booker, a poet and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage. Malika is the founder of poetry collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Her work has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize and the Forward Prize.

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  Victoria Kennefick

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  Victoria Kennefick

  Victoria Kennefick, an Irish poet, writer and teacher from Shanagarry, Co. Cork. Her work has won the Seamus Heaney Prize for Best First Collection and The Dalkey Literary Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award, and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and more.

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  Pascale Petit

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  Pascale Petit

  Pascale Petit, an award-winning poet of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. Pascale’s work has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and for Wales Book of the Year, won the inaugural Laurel Prize, Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize (for work that evokes a strong sense of place), and been the Poetry Book Society Choice.

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  Alycia Pirmohamed

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  Alycia Pirmohamed

  Alycia Pirmohamed, a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland, winner of the Nan Shephard Prize for her nonfiction debut, a member of nature writing project ‘field notes collective’, co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme, and a teacher on the Creative Writing master’s programme at the University of Cambridge.

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  Richard Scott

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  Richard Scott

  Richard Scott, a poet, his debut collection, Soho was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Polari First Book Prize. He teaches poetry at the Faber Academy and is a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Meet the Cohort

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  Ahana Banerji

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  Ahana Banerji

  Ahana Banerji is a former Foyle Young Poet and a Poetry Society Young Critic. Her debut pamphlet, Piecemeal, was published last year with Nine Pens Press. Her poetry and short fiction have been published by Oxford Poetry, The White Review, and The Short Story. She currently studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

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  AJ Yi

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  AJ Yi

  AJ Yi (they/them) is a queer, trans-masculine, half-Chinese writer known for the Oliver-nominated A PLAYLIST FOR THE REVOLUTION (Bush Theatre) and the Tony Craze Award nominated LOVE SONGS (Soho Theatre). Their work for stage and screen often focusses on exploring the everyday impact of colonialism and capitalism, the politics of protest, and the political relationship between China and the West. AJ’s performance practice spans comedy, drag, and songwriting. They are a member of the all-Asian queer cabaret collective The Bitten Peach.

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  Alice Foxall

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  Alice Foxall

  Alice is a multidisciplinary artist based in London with work spanning theatre, poetry and podcasts. She focuses on interlacing these art forms to make new, innovative forms of media and is currently releasing season 2 of her dystopian podcast THE PROJECT. Her poetry features themes of womanhood, queerness and fantasy.

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  Alison Clara Tan

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  Alison Clara Tan

  Alison Clara Tan is a Southeast Asian writer based in London. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in fourteen poems, SUSPECT, The Comstock Review, Oyster River Pages, and is highly commended in The Passionfruit Review 2025 Here and Now Contest.’

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  Annabelle Sami

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  Annabelle Sami

  Annabelle Sami is a writer working across prose, poetry and television.
  She has written 12 books for children, which have been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, longlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award and Diverse Book Award, and won the Spark! Book Award and Stockport Children’s Book Award. Her writing for adults has been featured in Writer’s Mosaic, Peaks of Colour Nature Writing Journal and Fearlessly Magazine.
  Annabelle also works in the arts with several prominent theatre companies and artists, producing participatory and experimental work.

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  Anya Hunt-Byer

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  Anya Hunt-Byer

  Anya Hunt- Byer is a Queer, disabled writer, actor and artist based in South London.She’s previously been published in ‘Within the Binding’ with spread the word, and her made her stage debut at theatre Peckham with Portic Unity’s spoken word theatre company. She is currently training in writing for stage screen, radio and television at the Royal Central School of speech and Drama.

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  Bhumika Billa

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  Bhumika Billa

  Bhumika is a poet, creative facilitator, kathak dancer, filmmaker & legal academic. A Button Poetry Grand Champion (2023), Out-Spoken Prize Finalist (2023), and BBC Words First finalist (2021), her poems on page, on stage, and on screen have travelled to the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Greece & India. She has been commissioned by Amnesty International, Harvard University, University of Cambridge, and Apples and Snakes among others to creatively and critically explore themes of heritage, justice & identity to bring together languages, art forms & people.

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  Caz

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  Caz

  Unpublished dreamer who started writing poetry as a girl to help bring about world peace, but has since settled for less lofty goals – mainly criticising misogyny and making others feel seen. Big fan of the small things such as pocket-sized notebooks. Proud owner of five library cards.

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  Cíara Gaughan

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  Cíara Gaughan

  Cíara is a learning poet and person-who-writes-and-still-hesitates-to-call-themself-a-’writer’. Loves hyphens. Is possessed of the ‘gift of the yap’ (maybe not quite the gab).

  Born n’ grew up in Southeast London, they are interested in portrays of queerness, the interplay between two characters, and recovery, especially. Recently has been floored by C*nto by Joelle Taylor, and Max Porter’s works, too. Is over-the-moon to be a part of Poetics Lab, and looking forward to seeing what possible transformation awaits…

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  Chloe Elliott

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  Chloe Elliott

  Chloe Elliott is a winner of the 2022 New Poets Prize for her debut pamphlet Encyclopaedia, out now. In 2020, she won the Gold Creative Future Writers’ Award. Her writing features in bath magg, Basker Magazine, Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, Corridor 8, Magma, Strix amongst others. Her micro-chapbook DREAMSIMULATION is published with Carmen Et Error. She was a member of the 24/25 Roundhouse Poetry Collective and is also a part of The Writing Squad. Currently, she works at an art gallery in London.

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  Dianne Danquah

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  Dianne Danquah

  Dianne is a South-East London writer, visual artist, activist and budding social researcher, who believes in the power of storytelling through a range of mediums and hopes to dedicate her life to amplifying the voices of marginalised people through multiple art forms. Writing is her first love and she aims to continue pursuing it through this programme.

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  Ellie Spirrett

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  Ellie Spirrett

  Ellie Spirrett is a poet and member of Spread the Word’s Young Writers Collective. She writes about disability, ableism, friendship and the loneliness epidemic. Ellie is the self advocacy coordinator at Lewisham Speaking Up, an organisation that supports people with learning disabilities to campaign for their rights.

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  Eliezer Gore

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  Eliezer Gore

  Eliezer Gore is a Zimbabwean-born artist who was raised in Lewisham. He is Poet, Theatre maker and Facilitator. His work makes use surrealism to transform concrete reality and deliver joyous affirming narratives .He is currently a Roundhouse Resident artist, 2024 Roundhouse Poetry slam runner up, and Soho Writers Lab alum. This year he was commissioned to write “Last Orders” , a narrative poetry sequence for Deptford Literature Festival

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  Erwin Arroyo Pérez

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  Erwin Arroyo Pérez

  Erwin Arroyo Pérez is the founder and EIC of The Poetry Lighthouse. He also teaches literature and works as a translator. He holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and Linguistics from Université Paris Nanterre and King’s College London, specialising in Victorian literature and poetry. He studied under poet Sarah Howe and novelist Benjamin Wood, shaping his approach to creative writing. Erwin’s poetry has been published in Paloma Press, Ink Sweat and Tears, Magma Poetry (forthcoming), Angrygables Press, The Winged Moon, Wildscape, TGLR Prize, Cosmic Daffodil, Nanterre University Press, among other American and British literary magazines and anthologies.

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  Yuwei 魚尾

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  Yuwei 魚尾

  Yuwei 魚尾 (she/they) is a queer Chinese poet based in London, working across poetry, fiction, and multidisciplinary art. As a multilingual writer moving between languages, nature, and the more-than-human world, their practice explores gendered trauma, queer becoming, and diasporic migration, with a growing focus on decolonial and ecological awareness, as well as ritual-based writing. Their poetry and art writing have been featured in festivals, venues, and literary magazines such as Rehearsal Art Book Fair, The Feminist Library, ANARKISS. They love talking to trees.

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  Izzy Radford

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  Izzy Radford

  Izzy Radford is a poet, playwright and screenwriter. She was part of the Southbank Centre New Poets Collective, has several television projects in development and her romcom, ‘Seating Plan’, is currently debuting at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to rave reviews. She has been shortlisted for the BAFTA Rocliffe Comedy Award, Hat Trick New Writers competition and the BBC Writers Room. She feels deeply passionate about Michelle Pfeiffer’s on-screen range. Her instagram is @izzyyradford.

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  Jay Mitra

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  Jay Mitra

  Jay Mitra is a punk poet, non-fiction writer, and educator currently based in London. Born in India but raised in Yorkshire, they have spent their life merging two cultures into one 5ft body. They were selected as one of Apples & Snakes’ 40 Future Voices in poetry and are an alum of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective. Jay likes to write about desire, grief and memory; their poetry has been broadcast by the BBC and published in print and online. Currently, they work as an English teacher and freelance as a writer and facilitator.

  Social handles: @punkofcolour on instagram, X and tiktok.

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  Julia “JULZ” Motcho

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  Julia “JULZ” Motcho

  Julia is a poet and songwriter who writes on topics surrounding loss, love and issues of intersectionality which manifest through Blackness and neurodivergence. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Law and has transferred those writing skills to more creative endeavours. Her work has appeared in the Tate Modern, representing artists of South London. She is mainly a written artist, although is expanding into spoken word as seen in her participation in Mind Over Slammer.

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  Lauren Hurrell

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  Lauren Hurrell

  Lauren, originally from Bristol and now living in Lewisham, is a content writer and journalist (previously at New Statesman Media Group) and has been contributing to the queer digital magazine Nonchalant Mag since 2020. She mostly loves to read and write about the weird and beautiful eccentricities of human beings, queer identity, grief and sometimes, pop stars.

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  Leon Ray-Fernandes

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  Leon Ray-Fernandes

  Leon Ray-Fernandes is a poet from London whose work often explores history, myth, and place. He is an alumnus of the Barbican Young Poets programme.

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  Lily Steve

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  Lily Steve

  Lily Steve is a writer and poet with a background in visual art. They write in an attempt to get unstuck, poke at the roots of things, unmask autism and embrace fluidity. Lily’s work has been published by Buoy Press, Raid.R and Warepeople. They co-run One Word workshops, a poetry and art project, with the artist Karl Murphy. Lily’s been writing alongside working in SEN education for the last few years.

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  Magda Simões-Brown

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  Magda Simões-Brown

  Magda is an English-Portuguese writer from South East London, who studied English and Creative Writing at UEA. She mainly writes poetry and short fiction.

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  Mamour Touray

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  Mamour Touray

  Mamour Touray is a Gambian musician and poet whose work concerns abstract stories led by fleeting emotions. He celebrates people and moments and questions what it means to be free. Roundhouse Poetry Collective Alumnus and founder of Art Society Records. He is currently working on his debut poetry pamphlet.

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  Olive Franklin

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  Olive Franklin

  Olive Franklin’s work appears in Banshee, The London Magazine and The Poetry Review.

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  Pallas Yiu

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  Pallas Yiu

  Pallas is a writer based in London with sporadic artistic endeavours. Their current interest angles towards multi-modal poetry, polyphonic poetry, and poetry as a conduit for resurfacing histories. Otherwise, they enjoy haptic poems from a snail’s eye view. Last year, they wrote and performed a solo piece on memory & grief with The Storyteller Residency.

  Image credit Ray Roberts

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  Precious Ogunlowo

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  Precious Ogunlowo

  Precious Ogunlowo is a highly commended SLAMbassadors poet whose writing explores the complexities of human experiences, including self-discovery, identity and culture. She holds a BSc in Politics and History from LSE, with her work featured in Young Writers anthologies and published on the LSE website. Precious has also worked as a Unit Stills Photographer on a BFI-funded film, and her passion for storytelling extends beyond poetry into visual arts and media.

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  Shermya Modupe

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  Shermya Modupe

  Shermya is a London-based poet and actor whose work explores memory, loss, and the echo of girlhood. In 2025, she was runner-up in the Roundhouse Poetry Slam and shortlisted for the BBC Words First competition. She was interviewed on BBC Radio London, where she spoke about poetry, creativity, and the stories behind her work. She has performed widely across London’s poetry scene, sharing her work at both intimate spaces and established stages. Poetry began as therapy and has now evolved into a way for her to hold the ache of being human. Her writing blends nostalgia, softness, and wordplay, offering shimmering moments where melancholy turns beautiful.

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  Simone Eligon

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  Simone Eligon

  Simone Eligon (she/her) is a South London Creative with a degree in Film and Media Studies with a concentration in Screenwriting from Yale University. Her work focuses on the body, Blackness, and womanhood. When she‘s not busy writing, Simone can be found in goal on the football pitch for Chatham Town FC.

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  Taylor Beidler

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  Taylor Beidler

  A byproduct of the American Midwest, Taylor Beidler is a London-based writer. They are a recent alum of Barbican Young Poets 2025. They were the inaugural recipient of the UEA New Forms Award through the National Centre for Writing. Their collaborative poetry with composer Aliayta Foon-Dancoes was a part of Plastic Language x Tenement Press, available to listen on NTS Radio. They are currently finishing their first novel. They will embark on a Creative-Critical PhD at the University of Essex/University of East Anglia in the fall.