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.  

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.  

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. 

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.’ 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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… 

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. 

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.  

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. 

 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 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.  

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.   

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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 

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. 

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. 

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. 
 

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.