Joan Anim-Addo
JOAN ANIM-ADDO is Emeritus Professor and Director of the Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies (Goldsmiths, London). She is a poet, librettist and scholar. Her writing includes Janie, Cricketing Lady (poetry); Imoinda (libretto); Longest Journey: A History of Black Lewisham and Touching the Body: History, Language and African-Caribbean Women’s Writing. She is Associate Editor of Callaloo, Journal of Diaspora Arts and Letters and a Senior Fellow, HEA. She is a member of the editorial board of Transition Magazine (Harvard). Her recent publications include the co-authored This is the Canon: Decolonize your Bookshelf in 50 Books (Greenfinch).
Dr. Gabriella Beckles-Raymond
Dr. Gabriella Beckles-Raymond (SFHEA) is an independent interdisciplinary philosopher, writer, educator, and CEO of EQBR. Her research and writing is concerned with questions of love, moral psychology, culture, justice and ethics and what it means to ‘Liv Good’ at the intersections of systemic domination. Gabriella also has over twenty years of experience as a leader and educational program developer. She is and co-founder of the Black Thought Collective and a member of the Caribbean Philosophical Association and the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers.
Malika Booker
Malika Booker FRSL is a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage, lectures Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, hosts and curates Peepal Tree Press’s Literary podcast, New Caribbean Voices and co-founded of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (A writer’s collective). Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre 2014. She is published in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017). A Cave Canem Fellow, Malika was awarded the Cholmondeley Award (2019) and The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2020).
Janine Bradbury
Dr Janine Bradbury is a poet and academic. She teaches at the University of York where she is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Writing and Culture where she teaches Black British, African American, and Caribbean literature. Her academic research has been published by Bloomsbury, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan and others. She has written for the Guardian and been a repeat guest on BBC Radio 4. Janine’s poems appear in Magma, Oxford Poetry, Black Lines, and in the collection Blood & Cord: Writers on Early Parenthood (Emma Press 2023). She is the co-editor (with Dr. Suzanne Scafe) of the forthcoming Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of Black British Writing (Volume 3).
Dr. Marl'ene Edwin
Marl’ene Edwin is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA and also a Churchill Fellow. Her research interests are Caribbean Creole Languages and Oral Literature. She is the convenor for the postgraduate module Literature of the Caribbean and its Diasporas taught on the MA in Black British Literature and the MA Literary Studies: Caribbean Pathway.
Dr. Keith Jarrett
Dr. Keith Jarrett’s work explores Caribbean-British identity, religion and sexuality. A multiple poetry slam champion, he was selected for the International Literary Showcase as one of 10 outstanding UK-based LGBT writers. His play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic and aired on BBC Four. Selah, his debut poetry collection, was published in 2017. Keith is a Lambda and Obsidian Fellow and teaches at NYU in London.
Professor Pat Noxolo
Professor Pat Noxolo’s research brings together the study of international development, culture and in/security, and uses postcolonial, discursive and literary approaches to explore the spatialities of a range of Caribbean and British cultural practices. She has led two international teams exploring Caribbean in/securities and creativity – CARISCC (funded by Leverhulme) and CARICUK (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council).
Olumide Popoola
Olumide Popoola is a Nigerian-German/British writer. Her publications include essays, poetry, experimental texts, a novella, a play, a short story collection, as well as recordings in collaboration with musicians. Olumide has a PhD in Creative Writing and has lectured in creative writing at various universities. In 2018 Olumide curated Berlin’s inaugural international African Bookfest, Writing in Migration. Olumide presents internationally as author, speaker and facilitator. Keen to nurture the next generation of LGBTQ+ writers she created the Arts Council England funded mentoring & creative writing scheme for emerging LGBTQ+ writers, The Future is Back. Olumide’s critically acclaimed novel When We Speak of Nothing was published by Cassava Republic Press in 2017. Her novel The Swimmer is due out with Cassava Republic Press in 2023.
photo: Josimar Senior
Degna Stone
Originally from the Midlands, Degna Stone is a poet and poetry editor based in north east England. They are co-founder and former managing editor of Butcher's Dog poetry magazine, a contributing editor at The Rialto.
They are currently undertaking a PhD at Northumbria University, examining the joys and challenges faced by artists from the African, Asian and Caribbean diasporas when creating and presenting work in the north of England.
Their debut full-length poetry collection Proof of Life on Earth is published by Nine Arches Press, and they are the co-editor of Whose Heritage?: Challenging Race and Identity in Stuart Hall’s Post-nation Britain (Routledge).
photo: Matthew Thompson
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