Ilisha Thiru Purcell is an award-winning Sri Lankan-Scottish poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. She was part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator Programme and has been a Young Creative Associate with New Writing North. Ilisha was shortlisted for the James Berry Poetry Prize 2024 and Nine Arches’ Primers Volume 7. Her work has appeared in publications such as Bi+ Lines Anthology, Butcher’s Dog, and Under the Radar. She has performed at events such as the Newcastle Poetry Festival and the Newcastle Fringe Festival.

Ilisha was awarded the 2025 Poet in Residence Futurist Award. You can read her reflection on and collection of works from the residency here.

Ilisha’s debut poetry pamphlet, What She Said, is out now with Verve Poetry Press and available for purchase here.

Nazaret Ranea is a poet from Málaga, Spain, based in Edinburgh. Named one of Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars, her work explores nostalgia, memory, and home, blending personal and universal experiences. Her debut collection, Nettles, is forthcoming with Drunk Muse Press. Published in over fifty international journals, Nazaret is also the creator of the zines My Men and My Women and editor of For Those Who Tend the Soil, an anthology with the Scottish Poetry Library. She performs at spoken word events, facilitates workshops, and has been featured on BBC Radio Scotland and at the Edinburgh Fringe and International Book Festival.

Nazaret was awarded the 2025 StAnza Poet in Residence Translation Award. You can read her collection of works from the residency here.

You can read more about Nazaret’s work, including publications for purchase, by visiting nazaretranea.com.

April Yee’s poetry, fiction, and essays have been named Best of the Net, two-time The Best American Essays Notable, and winner of the Manchester Fiction Prize and Ivan Juritz Prize. A Harvard alumna and former journalist, she reported in more than a dozen countries before moving to London, where she is a Spread the Word trustee and Refugee Journalism Project mentor. Her work is in The Times Literary Supplement, The Offing, and Electric Literature, and she has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Southbank Centre, the National Book Critics Circle, and the University of East Anglia.

April was awarded the 2024 StAnza Poet in Residence Translation Award.

You can read more about April’s work at aprilyee.com.

Iona Lee is a poet, artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. She has been a prominent member of Scotland’s live poetry scene for ten years, appearing on radio and television, and performing her work in venues and on festival stages all over the UK and Europe, including Glastonbury, the World Slam Championships, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Her debut collection, Anamnesis, was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, and was included in SNACK magazines list of the top ten books to be published in Scotland in 2023.

Iona was awarded the 2024 StAnza Poet in Residence Collaboration Award, working together with visual artist, Katie Fowlie. You can read her collection of works from the residency and her reflective essay here.

You can find details of her published works and where they are available for purchase by visiting www.ionalee.com.

Katie Fowlie is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Fife. She was fortunate to grow up on the outskirts of St Andrews, and developed a deep connection to the Scottish coastal landscape. She is drawn to Fife’s sweeping coastline, its ever-changing terrain and the clues it provides to its Industrial Heritage. Her inspiration comes from the environment around her, and foraging is central to my artistic practice. Being outdoors each day provides the freedom, sensory nourishment and thinking space for Katie to devise creative projects whilst collecting the materials she enjoys working with as an artist.

Katie was awarded the 2024 Artist in Residence Collaboration Award, working together with poet, Iona Lee. Katie also created our 2025 festival image and created an exhibition of found objects at the 2025 festival on the theme of ‘How We Feel’. You can read about Katie’s portfolio of work here.

Sea Worn Plastic, 2025

Gabriela Michele (Gabriela Milkova Robins) is a Macedonian poet and SGSAH-funded PhD researcher in the School of English based at the University of St Andrews. Her work has appeared in Bad Saturn Media, Seedlings, The AI Literary Review, The Ekphrastic Review, DIVERSITY – International Review for Literature and Art, OKNO.MK, Zenit Magazine, and three Macedonian anthologies. Her bilingual poetry pamphlet, The Peak of Tonight, was published in 2016 by Metanoja Publishing. Do You Know the Sea?, a series of five audial poems, was released in 2020, debuting on UK Radio.

Gabriela was awarded the 2023 StAnza Poet in Residence Translation Award, producing work in Macedonian and English inspired by the festival theme ‘WILD: forms of resistance’. You can read her collection of works from the residency here.

Working in collaboration with ceramicists Jonathan Koetsier and Sarah Koetsier, Gabriela also produced an exhibition – Peeking – as part of the 2023 festival.

You can find details of all Gabriela’s published works and links to purchase via her website – https://gabrielamichelemilkova.com/publications.

Jj Fadaka is a writer, workshop facilitator and radical based in Edinburgh. Their writing explores the possibility community, feminism, and love give us to create change. Their workshops draw on feminist and black radical traditions to create space for exploring our desires in a world without barriers. As a member of the Community Wellbeing Collective, they facilitate weekly creative writing workshops in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh. Jj uses poetry and art to speak to the political urgencies facing their local and global community whilst centring community and joy-making in mapping the struggles against these.

Jj was awarded the 2023 StAnza Poet in Residence Open Award. You can read their collection of works and reflections from the residency here. You can read an interview with Jj about the residency here.

You can read more of Jj’s work and find publications for purchase by visiting https://jjfadaka.com/selected-work/