My dad had a Toyota Catharsis and it was a terrible ride, so I write for the simple reason that writing is easy, writing is a bumpless road paved with good inflections… once you don’t concern yourself with quality… or critique… or self-awareness… manage that, and writing is easy, honestly, so simple that even I can do it. Plays are hard though, as in technically, as in remembering who said what and to whom, that sort of thing, and poems, poems are hard, not just the rhyming, but the non-rhyming ones as well, and novels, they are sooooooo long and … Continue reading Robbie Taylor

I am a poet of people and place; the transient and the eternal. I make:  – home, faith, work, words and dinner. Itchy preacher, always Mama. Independent organiser for High Street Poetry: signposting you to the best of local poetry and spoken word. I live in Ely in Cambridgeshire with my family, where I’m part of the Fen Speak team – running Elys main poetry night. Someone invited me once and this is where it led.I have been published previously by: Allographic, Edgewords, Periwinkle Literary Magazine and a piece of mine will be on Idle Ink in the next month. … Continue reading Beth Hartley

Carson Pytell is a Pushcart nominated writer living outside Albany, NY whose work has appeared widely online and in print, including in Ethel Zine, Perceptions Magazine, Rabid Oak, Backchannels and White Wall Review, among others. He is Assistant Editor of the journal Coastal Shelf and participated in the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project in December 2020. His first two chapbooks, First-Year (Alien Buddha Press, 2020) and Trail (Guerrilla Genesis Press, 2020), are now available and his third, The Gold That Stays (Cyberwit Publishing, 2021) is forthcoming. Must as Madeleine Cakes You couldn’t imagine the length of you: millisecond heavier than a … Continue reading Carson Pytell

Wandering troubadour Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 250 journals in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa; and 14 chapbooks of poetry – including On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019) and the up-coming Escape to the Sea (Origami Poems Project, 2021). She also pens travel pieces, with narratives appearing in the anthologies Drive: Women’s True Stories from the Open Road (Seal Press, 2002) and Far Flung and Foreign (Lowestoft Chronicle Press, 2012), and travel articles and guidebooks. In March 2011, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada honored her verse. She has done literary readings, from Alaska … Continue reading Lorraine Caputo

Born and bred in the industrial valleys of South eastern Wales. I lived early life in the shadows of the Six bells colliery, growing up within a close-knit community helped shape lifetime views on political issues.  I worked for over a decade at the colliery and held office in the trade union lodge at a young age. My early influences include the welsh rugby team and the west indies cricket team. I also delight in reading the wealth of unpublished poets, enjoying greatly poems and pints nights and now poetry nights online. Humour and punchlines get my thumbs up. I’m … Continue reading John Munn

Ross McGivern is a poet harvested from the deep, fertile flatlands of South Lincolnshire, who also dabbles in painting and music. He is a poem trapped in an endless edit,  rubbish at a crowded bar and used to make the best Cappuccino in town. Ross’ work has appeared in two D.I.Y chapbooks: The Featherstone Readings (2017), Interpret (2018) )inspired by a collaboration with the Norwich based artist Charlie James), and The Fallow Page (2020) published by Maplestreet Press. His work had also appeared have also appeared in previous editions of Impspired, The Plastic Brain Presents Podcast, Lincolnshire Strange Delights, Hedgehog Press, Black Pear Press, Backcombed Magazine, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and Openings – … Continue reading Ross McGivern

Tanya Farrelly is the author of three books: a short fiction collection When Black Dogs Sing (Arlen House), which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and named winner of the Kate O’ Brien Award 2017, and two novels: The Girl Behind the Lens and When Your Eyes Close (Harper Collins). She holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Bangor University, Wales, and teaches at numerous institutions, including the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, and the People’s College. She is the founder and director of Bray Literary Festival and has recently been appointed Writer-in-Residence at NUIG. Her … Continue reading Tanya Farrelly

David Butler’s novel City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. Arlen House is to publish his second short story collection, Fugitive, and Doire Press his third poetry collection, Liffey Sequence, both later this year. THE CENSUS JOSIE and her daughter EMER sitting at JOSIE’s kitchen table, teacups, plates with crumbs etc. Pen poised, EMER has a census-form open before her. EMER: Good to go? JOSIE:             Have I a choice? EMER:             (flitting through census) Ten minutes is all it’ll take. Then I’ll drive you as far as the chipper. Ten minutes, … Continue reading David Butler