OUR
TRUSTEES
Anna Hayward – Chair of Trustees
Anna’s leadership career spans both business and charities. Over 30+ years, she has worked in health, travel and professional services, headed up two charities and now works as an independent consultant, focusing on strategy and communications. She is also a trained counsellor and supports charity leaders locally through mentoring. Anna writes historical fiction under the pen name Anna Lucia, drawing on her Italian heritage. Her debut, Broken Madonna, set in 1940s Italy and 1990s England, is a 2025 Page Turner Award Winner. She supports writers as a writer mentor, editor, course and retreat leader, with a focus on inspiration, productivity and wellbeing.
Abi Fellows
Abi is a literary agent with over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, having started in bookselling at Blackwell’s in 2001. After a stint on the sales team of Faber and Faber, Abi began her agenting career with Georgina Capel Associates, spent several years as a literary scout at RR Ltd and returned to agenting at The Good Literary Agency, building a list focused on amplifying and championing writers from backgrounds that had traditionally been marginalised. In 2023, Abi joined DHH Literary Agency.
Abi also has experience as a school governor with particular involvement in the schools literacy programmes and their work with children who have special educational needs and are disabled.
Akila Richards
Akila is an award-winning poet, writer and spoken word artist, performing and collaborating nationally and internationally. Her work features in collaboration with artists and genres for theatre, film, visual arts and digital platforms. Her portfolio includes facilitating and initiating creative and cultural events, offering creative workshops, managing projects and providing mentoring and coaching to writers.
Akila’s poetry and prose are published in Covert Magazine, Creative Future, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Peepal Tree, Penguin, Waterloo Press, Brighton Festival and online platforms. Her latest fiction is included in the speculative anthology Glimpse at Peepal Tree Press. She is currently completing her first poetry pamphlet Ritual for a Mango and first novel for publishing.
Allegra Chapman
Allegra Chapman is an author and columnist, whose words have appeared in The i Paper, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, and many more. As an AuDHD (autistic and ADHD) person, Allegra is passionate about championing creatives who don’t fit the standard mould, and she founded Creative Fix to offer coaching and guidance to neurodivergent, disabled and chronically ill writers and artists. In 2023, she was named by f:Entrepreneur as one of the most inspirational female entrepreneurs in the UK.
Clare Christian
Clare Christian is an award-winning publishing executive, editor and publishing strategist with nearly 30 years’ experience across trade and independent publishing. She has held senior roles at HarperCollins, Orion, Hodder & Stoughton and Wiley, and co-founded The Friday Project and RedDoor Press. Clare is currently Director of Operations and Growth (UK) at Kevin Anderson & Associates. She is also co-founder of the ADCI Literary Prize, championing positive representation of disability in fiction and greater accessibility within the publishing industry.
Chris James
Chris James is Director of Producing & Planning at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. He was previously at the Royal Court Theatre, the UK’s leading New Writing theatre specialising in producing and developing new plays by living writers. In his time there he worked for nine years in its international team, managing playwright development projects all over the world before moving into producing. He worked on over 30 new plays at the theatre’s Sloane Square home and on national and international tours, before moving to the Lyric in June 2024 to head up their producing team. He lives in rural Surrey with his partner and a miniature schnauzer called Basil.
Jackie Mendoza
After working in commercial sales and marketing, Jackie joined the charity sector and spent over sixteen years in senior fundraising and consultancy roles for medium to large national charities. She oversaw all aspects of fundraising and specialised in corporates and major donors. Jackie’s poetry has been published in Covert 5 Magazine as well as in Re-Membering South Asian Feminist Poetics. Her first novel in progress was shortlisted for Peters Fraser & Dunlop’s 2023 Queer Fiction Prize. Jackie is also a trustee for Little Green Pig, a charity that helps young writers flourish.
Melissa Perkins
Melissa Perkins is Head of Programme & Events at Charleston, where she has worked for over ten years. She leads the artistic direction across Charleston’s festivals and live programming, including Charleston Festival, Festival of the Garden, Queer Bloomsbury and the year-round programme. Her work often focuses on literary commissions, interdisciplinary conversation and performance. She has worked with some of the world’s most high-profile writers, artists and actors, as well as bold voices creating work beyond the mainstream.
Richard Poffley
As Director of Finance & Administration at Roedean School, Finance Director at the children’s charity, Project Eileen, and now joining St. Benedict’s School, Ealing, Richard has 15 plus years of financial, operational and governance experience in children’s education and the charity sector. A Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant, Richard’s also worked in the hospitality, architecture and commercial sectors. He has a particular passion for storytelling through theatre, and is a regular attendee at the Royal Court.
Roy Mcfarlane
Roy Mcfarlane is a Poet, Playwright and former Youth and Community Worker born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage, spending most of his years living in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, now residing in Brighton. He is currently a Poetry Book Society collection selector and the National Canal Laureate.
The former Birmingham Poet Laureate has co-edited Celebrate Wha? Ten Black British Poets from the Midlands (Smokestack). His three collections are published by Nine Arches Press: Beginning With Your Last Breath and The Healing Next Time (shortlisted for the Ted Hughes and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize). His greatly anticipated third collection Living by Troubled Waters is out now. He’s performed nationally and internationally sharing his passion for social justice, equality, identity love and the healing power of poetry as a witness to our times.
Sam Davey
Sam Davey is an arts administrator, business transformation specialist, festival producer, writing coach and prize-winning author of fantasy and speculative fiction – both short stories and novels.
A Chartered Project Professional, Sam has worked in a number of sectors, including – until recently – as Head of Transformation at the Royal Opera and Ballet in Covent Garden. Sam has been the moderator and chair of the Association for Project Management (APM) International Project Awards since 2019.
As a novelist, Sam’s work is all about breathing new life into old stories – with particular interest in British and Celtic literature – from 600 CE to 1300 CE. Her latest novel, The Sisters and The Sword, will be published in the UK in August 2026, by Diversion Books/Simon and Schuster. Her previous novel – The Chosen Queen – is a feminist retelling of the origins of Camelot (June 2025, Diversion Books/Simon & Schuster).
Sam lives in Bexhill and is the founder of the Hastings Book Festival and producer of the Tunbridge Wells Literary festival.
Vedrana Velickovic
Dr Vedrana Velickovic is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Brighton where she convenes modules on Queer Writing, Black British, Postcolonial and European Literatures. She is the author of Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literatures and Cultures: Imagining New Europe (Palgrave 2019) and several articles on Black British and post-Yugoslav women’s writers, BrexLit and post-communism. She is also a member of the New Writing South’s Executive Board and co-founder (with Dr Vy Rajapillai) of the DeCol Collective.