Room 204
2026-27 Cohort
We are delighted to introduce our Room 204 Writers Development Programme 2026-2027 intake. All photos by Romy Whai.
Alison Manning
Alison Manning is a poet and author from Coventry. She writes poetry on a wide range of subjects and had a poem commissioned for Show Windows, part of Coventry City of Culture. Her poetry films have featured in film festivals, events, exhibitions and on the radio. She has published a children’s book, World Without Endless Sheep (APS Books, 2022) and poems in various anthologies and online sites. She is also a performer and workshop facilitator. She was shortlisted for Coventry Poet Laureate in 2023 and 2025. She was Resident Poet for Springboard Festival in 2025. Website: alisonmanningwriter.wordpress.com
Dr Ammad Butt
Dr Ammad Butt is a NHS doctor and writer from Birmingham. His work writing about health policy, politics, race and culture has been featured many times in The Guardian, The Independent, Spectator, Tribune, i Paper, Al Jazeera and many more. Some of his most popular writing has tackled the rise in health misinformation, as well as writing about migration. In 2025, he was awarded the prestigious Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word Non-Fiction award for the book he is developing: The International Health Service. He is represented by Kate Evans at PFD literary agency. You can find out more about his writing here: https://ammadbutt.com/
Cath Lambert
Cath Lambert is a Birmingham based writer whose work spans and merges creative and academic formats addressing themes of social justice, family, queerness, heartbreak and hope. They are a Reader in Sociology at the University of Warwick and as well as writing they love to plant things, read, cook and sing.
Charlotte Dale
Charlotte Dale is a children’s and nature writer. She’s been placed second in the Writing Magazine’s Children’s Book Prize, shortlisted with Creative Future and longlisted with Write Mentor. Charlotte’s writing spanning – children’s books, short stories, nature memoirs and poetry – often includes animals and explores her love of the natural world, especially invertebrates. She pens a chronic illness and nature blog thebackgardennaturalist.wordpress.com and is an Assistant Writer for Sparks Young Writers programme. She’s currently working on a middle grade novel and poetry collection.
Cherry Doyle
Cherry Doyle lives on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Her poetry has appeared in various magazines, journals, and anthologies, and she’s been placed in competitions. Her pamphlet September and collection The Taste of Rain are available from Offa’s Press. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from the Open University and an MFA in Poetry from Manchester Metropolitan University. Recently she’s been furiously writing both poetry and memoir through a period of illness. Find out more at cherrydoyle.com.
Erin Gilbey
Erin Gilbey is a Lincoln-born poet, playwright and storyteller who has been adopted by Birmingham. Her poetry has been published by The Belfast Review, Seedlings Studio and Coin Operated Press. When she’s not writing, she can be found in a Thai boxing gym in Kings Heath, a lake in Worcestershire, or in her garden. She is currently working on a pamphlet of poetry, inspired by the ecology and magic of the British Isles.
Laura Celeste
Laura Celeste is a lesbian, autistic writer who completed her Creative Writing MA at the University of Birmingham with a Distinction.
Her poetry has been published in over 25 places, including Poetry Ireland Review, Magma, bath magg, Under the Radar and the anthology After Sylvia. She is working on a poetry pamphlet exploring her experience of being a suicide survivor who also lost her dad to suicide.
In 2020, she won the International Staunch Short Story Prize for innovative thriller writing that doesn’t feature violence against women. She is also working on a modern-day thriller centred on Gertrude from Hamlet.
Lisa Marie Shepherd
Lisa Marie is an English-Cypriot poet who lives in Cannock Chase with her husband and two children. Her poetry has been published by New River Press, Ledbury online, Offa’s Press, Nine Arches Press and The Aftershock Review. In 2025 a portfolio of her poems was shortlisted for Nine Arches press ‘Primers’ volume 8. She is currently working on a pamphlet focusing on themes of mental health, motherhood and mixed heritage. As well as juggling work, children and figuring out what to cook for tea, she enjoys performing at open mic’s and exploring the West Midlands countryside with her dog.
Lucy C Hayward
Lucy C Hayward – Storyteller, writer and access consultant specializing in embedded access for blind and visually impaired audiences. Her work is designed with access at the heart of the creation process. Lucy produced ‘On the Tracks’ to be showcased at DaDa Fest with a live broadcast to a centre for the blind. Lucy has supported organisations at the Barbican and Glasshouse to understand barriers which need to be challenged and how to work inclusively.
Lucy is currently honing her skills in verbal storytelling and conservation so that she can share ancient and modern tales in rural spaces.
Pat Noxolo
Pat Noxolo is fulfilling a lifelong desire for a creative writing career, towards the end of an academic career as a Geography professor. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the Open University last year, experimenting with a range of genres (literary fiction, science fiction, creative non-fiction and fantasy). Her creative writing combines her interests in the arts, in environmental crisis and in the working-class communities she grew up in. Often writing within a fluid continuum between standard (Birmingham) English and Caribbean patois, Pat is developing a distinctively Black Brummie voice with a planetary consciousness.
Shakquille Millington
Shakquille is a spoken word artist and co-author of the audiobook ‘Which Way the Words Grow’.
A powerful live performer, workshop facilitator and project leader, he has worked with organisations including: Apples and Snakes, I Am Loud, Sofar Sounds and many more.
Simon Bolton
As a primary school teacher Simon has enthusiastically taught literacy for many years; so much so that a lot of it has rubbed off on him.
Simon now has the breathing space to develop his professional playwriting as well as continuing to act, direct and produce both Shakespeare and his own plays, starting with the Arts Council funded piece, Boxing Club Rules, set in Ludlow Amateur Boxing Club.
He has also written two touring productions for Birmingham based Rage Arts and a number of commissioned local history plays. And he is really enjoying himself doing it!
Siobhan Maher
Siobhan works as a brand and campaign storyteller for the jewellery industry, following an award-winning career as a designer. She has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, and studied Jewellery and Silversmithing at the Birmingham School of Jewellery.
Writing fiction exploring themes including art, memory and parenthood, Siobhan is currently completing her debut novel. She also writes about the relationship between craft and the body at authology.substack.com.
Siobhan’s work has been shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Writing Award and longlisted for the Mslexia Short Story Competition and the Wilbur & Niso Smith New Voices Award. Her pieces appear in Porter House Review and Floodgate Press’ Night Time Economy anthology.
Stacey Warner
Stacey’s full-time job is in marketing and communications. Outside of the 9-5, they are a writer who is fascinated with the most human of moments in the darkest of times. This has led them to having three horror short stories published, and a work in progress novel that explores toxic love and obsession within a sapphic context. They were late-diagnosed autistic, something they explored in their piece ‘Autistic Joy’ which received Highly Commended for Creative Non-Fiction at the South Warwickshire Literature Festival in 2025.
When not writing, they are an avid theme park enthusiast – an unlikely hobby for someone with a fear of heights!
Tom Milner
Tom Milner is an attempted novelist, and current groundworker, living in Cannock, Staffordshire. His work has a strong focus on the working class: highlighting the struggle and wisdom in the eternal search for a happy ending, from sweeping romances to intimate tales of friendship and revenge. His next novel follows two homeless friends on a hitch-hiking road trip across England as they chase down a long-lost love. He’ll be hitch-hiking the same route as research later this year. His cat, Ozzy, would appreciate a co-writer credit.
