Performer

afshan d’souza-lodhi

afshan d’souza-lodhi was born in Dubai and bred in Manchester. She is a writer of scripts and poetry and was recently commissioned to write and direct a short film for Channel 4 An Act of Terror and a radio play for BBC Sounds Chop Chop.

afshan is currently a Sky Writes writer-in-residence for Rotherham, a partnership between Sky Studios and New Writing North. She is also currently developing a TV series with Sky Studios. afshan has edited many anthologies and has an essay featured in Picador’s collection by Muslim women called Its Not About The Burqa. Her debut poetry collection ‘re:desire’ (Burning Eye Books) has been longlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2021).

Performer

Rosie Garland

Rosie Garland writes long and short fiction, poetry and sings with post-punk band The March Violets. Her new poetry collection ‘What Girls do the Dark’ (Nine Arches Press) has just been nominated for the Polari Prize. Latest novel The Night Brother was described by The Times as “a delight…with shades of Angela Carter.” In 2019, Val McDermid named her one of the UK’s most compelling LGBT+ writers. She has a passion for language nurtured by public libraries, and a firm belief in the power of persistence.

Performer

Maz Hedgehog

Maz Hedgehog is a writer and performer working somewhere between poetry and theatre. A founding member of Ink and Curtain, they’ve taken work to stages from Edinburgh to Brighton. Outside the arts, Maz dabbles in knitting, baking and excessive tweeting. Find them across social media @MazHedgehog.

Host

Bridget Hart

Bridget Hart (they/them) is a writer, performer and creative producer based in the South West.

Bridget has been tearing up DIY punk shows for over a decade, cutting their teeth at feminist punk shows across the country. They have performed at festivals including Boomtown, Shambala, Manchester Punk Festival and Edinburgh Fringe. They have published two collections of poetry, Better Watch Your Mouth (Burning Eye), and Chewing Gum – a queer reimagining of Grease published by Small Press (Tangent Books).

Bridget is the former editor of Burning Eye Books, and continues to help performance artists transfer their work to the page as a freelance mentor. They are the host of For Books’ Sake’s live performance night That’s What We Said and the founder of They//Us.