Clare Watson is a teacher and writer from Rubane, Co. Down. She has an MEd in Education and is currently completing an MA in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.

Akshay Anilal Sreeja is from Kerala, India and studies poetry and the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s. His work appears in journals, online magazines, and other vague, nondescript places.

Morgan Ventura Leathem is a writer, poet, and anthropologist of heritage based in Belfast from the American Midwest. Morgan’s work appears in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Romance Options: A New Anthology of Love Poems (Dedalus Press), Strange Horizons, Lackington’s, and Best Canadian Essays 2021 (Biblioasis), among others.

Soso is a multidisciplinary writer, artist, and facilitator from Derry concerned with pop culture and reality formatio. Their work can be seen in The Fall Magazine and other publications. Their work as an Irish language translator can be seen in Array Collective’s Turner-Prize-winning “An Síbín”.

Joseph Scott is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He completed the MA in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and his stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster.

Alanna Offield is a disabled, queer, Chicana from New Mexico now living in the north of Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Abridged, Dodging the Rain, Rust+Moth, Porridge Mag, and Catatonic Daughters. She is the owner of Seaside Books, an independent online and traveling bookshop.

Fiona Anderson is from Holywood, Co. Down and is a MSC graduate of Ulster University. With local charity Start360, Fiona has recently launched the Jigsaw Youth writing prize for young Northern Irish writers. Her Blackbird contribution ‘Buyer Beware’ was awarded third prize in the Frome Festival Short Story Prize in July 2022.

John James Reid is a poet and an architect, who has recently completed his MA in Poetry, culminating in a portfolio of poems around ‘A Sense of Space”. He has been published in the Ireland Chair of Poetry, the Ekphrastic Review, Open Ear, the Nashville Review and Clover, a Literary Review.

Matthew McGlinchey is a poet from North Belfast. He is a graduate of Queen’s University and is currently completing his MA in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre. Work by him can be found in The Apiary and Finding The Edge: Poems of the Ulster Museum.

Jamie Ryan Anderson writes from County Down. He specialises in Gothic fiction. He is currently working on his first novel.

Eimear Lugh Devlin is a poet and performer originally from County Down. They are currently undergoing their MA studies in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre and they hold a BA Honours in Drama from Queen's University Belfast.

Viviana Fiorentino lives in Belfast. Her poems appeared in anthologies (Dedalus Press, Salmon Poetry, Arlen House) and magazines ( i.e. The Stinging Fly) and were recorded for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive (UCD). She is one of the winners of the 2022 Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Prize.

Helen Brower grew up in Central California on a dairy farm, but the last thing she wanted to do was write about it. This year, she’s acknowledging the rich stories her home has to offer. In doing so, it has made her writing more authentic and aided her goal of creating strong women characters in every story.

Conall McGuigan was born in 1991 in Belfast. He graduated from Ulster University in 2020 with a BA in Photography with Video. He is currently studying the MA in Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. As well as writing poetry he enjoys writing short stories and novels.

Megan McGarrity is a writer from Belfast who often explores the cyclical yet sometimes extraordinary nature of small community lives. She is currently working on her first short story collection and has plans to launch a literary magazine in 2023 to promote up and coming writers.

Gianna Sannipoli is a Seamus Heaney International Poetry scholar at Queen’s University. Her work has been published in various journals and concerns itself primarily with the abstract and the personal.

Maggie Doyle is the author of ‘Mountain Notes - A Nature Diary’ published in 2021. She was one of Ten New Voices selected by The Open Ear in 2020, and graduated from the MA in Creative Writing with Distinction. She also presents the podcast The Mountain Gate.

Michael Hall was born and bred in Belfast. He is interested in scriptwriting and prose, likes to write Escapist fiction, and enjoys fantastical elements.

Eoghan Totten is Irish but was born in London in 1993. He is currently reading for an MA in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre as a Michael Longley scholar. In July 2022, he received an Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust student award.

Fionnbharr Rodgers has written articles for Northern Slant, Slugger O’Toole, and Backbench; he has had poems published in A New Ulster, and Blackbox Manifold.

Eoin Kelly was raised between Ireland and Australia. He studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin and is currently on the MA in Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre. His poetry has previously appeared in Honest Ulsterman, Icarus and Collage: A Political Act.

Chris Wright is a fiction writer from Bangor, Northern Ireland. He has been longlisted for the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year, was runner-up in The Mairtín Crawford Award, and his stories have featured in several print publications, such as Declarations on Freedom (Scotland Street Press), Fantastical Stories (Sixth Element), and A Little Unsteadily into Light (New Island).

Charlie McIlwain was born in 1999. He makes shapes w/ his hands.