The Team
Bridget Hart
Co-Director
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.
Jo Flynn
Co-Director
Jo Flynn (she/her) is a proud Manc, working in comms for the literary arts scene. Currently Partnerships and Communications Manager for Manchester City of Literature, Jo has also developed and teaches a poetry course with Write Like A Grrrl and offers editing and feedback on poetry to individual writers.
An award-winning poet herself with an MA in Creative Writing, Jo has featured in the National Poetry Library in London for short form poetry and been invited to read internationally.
Crow Rudd
They//Us Facilitator
Crow Rudd is disabled nonbinary queer internationally published punk poet, multiple slam champion, events producer and workshop facilitator based in York. Creator and host of Sad Poets Doorstep Club, founder of the UK Trans & Nonbinary Poets Network and workshop facilitator for They//Us. Crow has been published by Slice of the Moon Books, Paper & Ink Literary Zine and Warning Lines, has featured at Manchester Punk Festival, Loud & Queer Arts Festival and Leeds LGBT+ Lit Fest, and has headlined Punk in Drublic, Switchblade and Incite!. Their debut collection i am a thing of rough edges is available from Whisky & Beards Publishing.
Jane Claire Bradley
Founder + Former Co-Director
Jane Claire Bradley is an award-winning queer, working-class writer, performer, therapist and educator living in Manchester. She is the author of a chapbook, Truth or Dare (2021), and a novel, Dear Neighbour (Little Brown, 2023). Jane is the winner of a Northern Debut Award from New Writing North, and has been published in a range of lit journals and anthologies, including So Long As You Write (Dear Damsels), The Modern Craft (Watkins) and Test Signal: The best contemporary northern fiction (Dead Ink/Bloomsbury).
Paul Forster
Former Co-Director
Paul Forster has been been co-director and events manger for FBS since 2015. Curating and hosting London’s chapter of That’s What We Said, as well organising for larger events at Edinburgh Fringe and the Royal Albert Hall. Paul is now working on other projects including his first full novel and a supporting consultant for the new chapter of For Books’ Sake.
