Janette Ayachi is a Scottish-Algerian poet. Her poetry, prose and essays have been translated into several languages across anthologies. Her publications include Hand Over Mouth Music (Pavilion, Liverpool University Press), which won the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Award 2019, and QuickFire, Slow Burning (Pavilion, LUP), which was shortlisted for Scotland’s National Book Awards and The Laurel Prize 2024. She’s a regular on BBC arts programmes, mentors for the Scottish Book Trust, and is Poet in Residence at Edinburgh Park. 

Christine De Luca is a poet and novelist who writes in English and in Shaetlan (Shetlandic). From 2014–2017 she was the Edinburgh Makar. She has had eight poetry collections published, the most recent of which are Whit ails, whit heals – Ce qui afflige, ce qui apaise (Francis Boutle, 2024), Vod – Shetland’s Abandoned Crofthouses (The Shetland Times, 2025) and Such Fragile Futures with artist Brigid Collins (Main Point Books, 2025). She is an active collaborator with musicians and visual artists and a long-standing member of Shetland ForWirds and Shore Poets. 

Beth Frieden is a poet, actor, and mother. Originally from the USA, she now lives in Glasgow and writes in Scottish Gaelic and in English. Her debut pamphlet, Acair san talamh / Anchor in the land, was published by Stewed Rhubarb Press in 2023. She received a New Scottish Writer’s Award in 2021 from the Scottish Book Trust, and was in the 2023–24 cohort of Genesis Emerging Writers.

Roshni Gallagher is a poet from Leeds living in Edinburgh. Her debut collection Even the Trees is forthcoming with Bloodaxe Books in September 2026, and was joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize. In 2022, she was joint winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and a recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. She has an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of St Andrews.

Stewart Sanderson is a poet from Glasgow, who has published and performed widely in the UK and internationally. He is the author of the Tapsalteerie pamphlets Fios (2015) and An Offering (2018), as well as the book-length collection The Sleep Road (2021). Three times shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, his work has also been recognised by accolades including an Eric Gregory Award and Robert Louis Stevenson and Jessie Kesson Fellowships. His most recent book is Weathershaker (Tapsalteerie, 2025).