ISSUE 20
Bios
Birmingham born, Manchester (and sometimes Sheffield) based, Guruleen has worked on a number of projects and residencies with various organisations. These include a residency at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House where she wrote a collection of short stories, and a script written in collaboration with composers and virtual reality experts for an immersive tour of the National Trust’s Erddig House. The latter will open to the public in February 2026.
Guruleen has taught workshops to children, teens and young adults for English Heritage, The Writing Squad and Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, among others.
Her own practise centres character journeys, with a focus on women in particular. She writes scripts for screen and theatre, as well as prose. Guruleen is currently working on her novel and on writing and making a short film with some friends.
Kayleigh is a poet, short story writer and occasional critic.
She has been a part of the Roundhouse Collective, the MMU Poetry Library Critics Collective and the Apples & Snakes Writing Room. Her poems have appeared in Propel, Ink Sweat & Tears, Butcher’s Dog, fourteen poems, Isele Magazine, Cardiff Review and others.
Her poem ‘Anniversary-Dream’ was one of three winning poems in the Young Poets Network Collage Challenge and was a top five most read poem on their site for the year. Her poem ‘The Moth Poem’ was commended in the Young Poets Network When a Friend Calls Challenge. She was shortlisted for the 2024 Creative Futures Award. Her reviews have been published with PN Review, Poetry Book Society and the North.
In 2024 she was invited to perform at Glastonbury Festival in their Poetry & Words tent.
Kayleigh has a First in BA English Literature from the University of Manchester and a Distinction in MA Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
She worked as an intern for Ink Sweat & Tears in 2023 and 2024, publishing a variety of poetry, including an Ancient Greek and Roman Feature, a Short Poems Feature, an LGBTQ+ Feature and two of her own reviews.
Her debut poetry pamphlet mango & starblush is available to buy online or in some queer bookshops in the UK and internationally. Kayleigh works in publishing in London. She is a Squad Buddy for new Squad members.
Chloe Elliott is a writer, poet and artist based in York. She is the Gold Winner of the 2020 Creative Future Writers’ Award and one of the winners of the 2022 New Poets Prize. Her debut pamphlet Encyclopaedia came out with Smith|Doorstop Press in June 2023. In 2024, she released her microchapbook DREAMSIMULATION with The Braag.
Her arts writing has featured in Aesthetica, where she worked as part of the editorial team, as well as Corridor8. Her writing has also featured in bath magg, Basket Magazine, Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, Magma, The North, Strix and The Poetry Review, amongst others. She is particularly interested in mixedness, scrap ecology, and the tactile world.
Chloe is an experienced live arts facilitator, and has previously partnered or run workshops for Creative Future, Manchester Poetry Library, New Writing North and The National Glass Centre. She works for Modern Poetry in Translation and sits on the board for The Writing Squad.
She is part of the 24/25 Roundhouse Poetry Collective and is competing her MPhil in History of Art at the University of Cambridge.
Tayiba is a writer and translator from Manchester. She graduated with a degree in English and Modern Languages in 2023, and completed an Emerging Translators Mentorship with the translator Jamie Lee Searle in 2024. Her recent translations from German include poetry by Swiss-Croatian writer Dragica Rajčić Holzner and the sample chapters for Alena Jabarine’s book Der Letzte Himmel (The Last Sky).
Her own writing has appeared in Prospect Magazine, PEN Transmissions and World of Interiors.
Thank you to Manchester Poetry Library, the Northern Film Archive and Special Collections at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The project was co-managed with Ruth Awolola who, at the time, was the Poetry Library’s Learning Officer. Big thanks to the library’s Programme Manager Martin Kratz for making this all possible.
Ruth Awolola is a Nigerian Jamaican poet, performer, theatremaker and creative facilitator based in Manchester.
She has been writing and performing poetry since 2015 when she was among the winners of the National Youth Slam, Slambassadors UK. She has since performed her work across the UK and internationally, in a variety of different settings including the Hay Literature Festival and the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam.
Ruth writes for a variety of different audiences including poetry for children and young people. In 2017 she was one of five contributors to ‘Rising Stars: New Young Voices in Poetry’ which was highly commended in the Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award 2018. Her poetry has since featured in several anthologies and she has forthcoming contributions in children and young people’s poetry collections in both the UK and the United States.
Ruth is passionate about facilitating workshops for people from all backgrounds, ages and abilities to produce creative writing. She has led poetry and creative writing workshops at primary, secondary and summer schools, universities, football clubs, theatres, galleries, museums, teacher training development days and libraries, working with a wide range of charities and organisations.
She is an Obsidian Foundation Alum and former Roundhouse Resident Artist, where she began development of her performance poetry show ‘Gardens + Other Such Tree Places’. She was longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize 2022 and is a contributor to the anthology ‘My Heart is a Poem’ which is currently shortlisted for the Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award.
Ruth is a member of The Writing Squad’s Board and was until recently the Learning Officer at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is currently working on the development of her debut children’s poetry collection.
