ohn Barnie was born and raised in Abergavenny, and the town and surrounding countryside have played an important part in his writing. He is the author of twenty collections of poetry, as well as collections of essays, and two memoirs. In 2016 he was poet-in-residence at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History. He also plays and sings in the blues band Hollow Log.

Philip Gross is a long-haul traveller in the world of poetry, with nearly 30 collections in 40 years, some prizes, 30 years enabling creativity in schools and universities, and a commitment to creating space in poems for the nuanced reflection we need in a strident, factious world. He thrives on collaboration, with other writers and across the arts. The Shores of Vaikus, his exploration of his father’s birthplace, Estonia, came from Bloodaxe in 2024. A new collection, The Field, the Wood, the Way, due next year, walks the edgelands, in the between-time of the pandemic, round his home in Penarth.