Poets in Residence
Six emerging poets and one visual artist supported across three festival cycles, with the Edwin Morgan Trust.
This project has finished. We've kept it here as part of StAnza's history.
StAnza's Poets in Residence programme, delivered in partnership with the Edwin Morgan Trust, supported the work of six emerging poets and one visual artist over three festival cycles between 2023 and 2025.
Edwin Morgan took an inventive and playful approach to poetry and creation. We selected poets-in-residence whose approach matched Morgan's in form or spirit. The selected artists were invited to create work in response to both Edwin Morgan's legacy and the themes, events, poets, exhibitions, and more featured in each year's festival programme.
Supported by the Edwin Morgan Trust Second Life Awards, each poet was given a fee for their time, access to an archive of Edwin Morgan's material, plus travel, accommodation, and an opportunity to present their work at StAnza: Scotland's International Poetry Festival.
The aim of the residencies was to support and promote marginalised voices in poetry, and the open call and nominations were open to anyone who identified as being from a demographic that is currently under-represented in the literature sector.
Meet the residents below, and read some of the work made during these unique residencies.
The 2025 residents
Ilisha Thiru Purcell
Ilisha is an award-winning Sri Lankan-Scottish poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. Her debut pamphlet, What She Said, is out now with Verve Poetry Press.
More about Ilisha
Ilisha was part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator Programme and has been a Young Creative Associate with New Writing North. She 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.
Her residency work includes a reflection on, and collection of, works from the residency.
Nazaret Ranea
Nazaret 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.
More about Nazaret
Her work blends 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.
The 2024 residents
April Yee
April'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.
More about April
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.
Iona Lee
Iona is a poet, artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. Her debut collection, Anamnesis, was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award.
More about Iona
Iona 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. Anamnesis was included in SNACK magazine's list of the top ten books to be published in Scotland in 2023.
Her residency work includes her collection of works from the residency and a reflective essay.
Katie Fowlie
Katie is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Fife. She also created our 2025 festival image, and an exhibition of found objects at the 2025 festival on the theme of 'How We Feel'.
More about Katie
Katie grew 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 her 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.
Sea Worn Plastic, 2025 - Katie Fowlie's image for StAnza 2025.
The 2023 residents
Gabriela Michele Milkova
Gabriela Michele (Gabriela Milkova Robins) is a Macedonian poet and SGSAH-funded PhD researcher in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. Her residency work, in Macedonian and English, responded to the festival theme 'WILD: forms of resistance'.
More about Gabriela
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.
Working with ceramicists Jonathan Koetsier and Sarah Koetsier, Gabriela also produced an exhibition, Peeking, as part of the 2023 festival.
Jj Fadaka
Jj is a writer, workshop facilitator and radical based in Edinburgh. Their writing explores the possibility community, feminism, and love give us to create change.
More about Jj
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.
Peeking, Gabriela Michele's exhibition with ceramicists Jonathan and Sarah Koetsier at StAnza 2023.
Future opportunities
StAnza is committed to supporting the development of new and emerging writers and we hope to be able to offer more residencies at future festivals.
Keep an eye on our Take Part page and sign up to our newsletter to hear about upcoming programmes and projects.
If you are a funder interested in supporting professional development programmes for emerging writers, please get in touch by emailing Suzie Kirk Dumitru, Executive Producer, on suzie.kd@stanzapoetry.org.
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