Kayleigh Jayshree

Kayleigh began her career as a performance poet, working for several years with various theatres and organisations in the North of England. She took a break to focus on fiction and flash fiction. She graduated with a First from the University of Manchester in July, and began her MA: Creative Writing course at Nottingham Trent University in September, and will graduate with a Distinction in December 2022.

Kayleigh was recently accepted into the 2022-2023 Roundhouse Poetry Collective, and her poem ‘The Moth Poem’ was commended in the Poetry Society’s August Challenge Competition.

Her work has appeared online with Lunate Fiction, Fawn Press, the Poetry Society, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Polyphony (UoM) and The Hearth Magazine, among others. Kayleigh was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021.

She writes about the domestic, the near, makes it surreal and dreamlike.

Her fiction explores her heritage, family, childlike wonder, and her poetry re-evaluates beauty and trauma with a sharp edge.

Her influences are Jhumpa Lahiri, Ocean Vuong, Seamus Heaney and Kendrick Lamar.