Meet the team
Dr Bea Hitchman is a novelist whose work focuses on gender, queer writing and historical fiction. Her 2013 novel Petite Mort was nominated for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Novel Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and serialised as a ten-part Radio 4 drama. Her second novel, All of You Every Single One (2021), was one of Vogue’s Best Novels of 2022 and was nominated for the Polari Prize and HWA Prize. .
Dr Craig Jordan-Baker is a writer of drama, fiction and non-fiction. His drama has been widely performed and his first novel, The Nacullians, was published in 2020. His most recent work, If the River is Hidden (2022), is a hybrid work combining poetry and lyrical prose. He was the winner of the 2018 Excellence in Facilitating and Empowering Learning Award. .
Dr Jess Moriarty researches in the field of teaching writing practice, especially in auto-ethnographical academic writing and in creative writing with undergraduates. Another winner of the Teaching Excellence award, she is also co-founder of Work Write Live, which provides a range of writing short courses and volunteering opportunities for students to develop vocational and academic skills. You can read more about .
Dr John McCullough is a Costa-shortlisted, Polari prize-winning poet who focuses on mental health, loss, the body, queer politics, queer history and 91¶¶Òõ as a centre for unique LGBT+ subcultures. He has written three collections, the first being The Frost Fairs (Salt, 2011) which won the Polari First Book Prize, was a Book of the Year for The Independent and a summer read for The Observer. His second, Spacecraft (Penned in the Margins, 2016), was shortlisted for the Ledbury-Forte prize and was a summer read for The Guardian. His latest collection, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins, 2019), was shortlisted for the Costa. Read more about .
Julie Everton is a playwright and script editor. She teaches drama, script writing and screenwriting. Her research includes writing about real events/people, models of script development and autoethnography. You can read more about .
Dr Barbara Chamberlain teaches modules in creative writing, English language, media and literature in areas including cinema, landscape writing, intercultural communication, teacher training and comics. She co-curates the Graphic 91¶¶Òõ symposium which brings together comics scholars, creators, publishers and readers. Read more about