The Writers' Space
Photography & Audio Exhibition
A photography & audio exhibition to celebrate The Writers’ Space project 23/24
We wanted to showcase just some of the writers who used the free Writers’ Space sessions between July 2023 - June 2024 as part of our Arts Council England funded project.
Also featured in the exhibition are Ironclad’s Co-founders and the facilitators of The Writers’ Space sessions.
Each writer and facilitator image is accompanied by an audio interview, and we even have an interview with the wonderful photographer of this exhibition, Roxy van der Post of Myosotis Film & Photography.
We’d LOVE to know your thoughts about the exhibition - please do head to the SURVEY after you’ve experienced the work.
Thank you to Roxy, the writers who agreed to take part, and our facilitators for bringing this project to life.
The Writers’ Space has been expanded with the support of Arts Council England and Amazon Literary Partnership at Jubilee Library, Coldean Library, Whitehawk Library, Reading Central Library and Hastings Library!
That’s FIVE free opportunities a month to write in a welcoming, shared space.
Hannah Collisson
Facilitator - The Writers’ Space
Hannah is an artist and creative facilitator based in Hastings. Her work spans theatre, performance, writing, poetry, video and photography. With a background in journalism, storytelling is a common thread running throughout Hannah’s work. She is fascinated by place-making and stories told and untold. Hannah is an artist/mentor at ExploreTheArch theatre company, a director at Lifesize CIC and a member of Babes in Arms, a collective of artist mothers.
Maura Cowen
Maura believes the written word has the power of change: for ourselves, others, the way we understand...
Her tools include photographs, people watching, reflective alone-time. She spring-boards off reading, particularly detailed, visceral, fantastic writing (think: Terry Goodkind, Angela Carter, D.H. Lawrence, Mary Oliver, Clive Barker). With pen and paper she initially seeks an inner deep-dive, and any subsequent sharing is illuminating.
She would say: write. Read, yes, but: write. Discovery and stimulation await.
Ali Hendry
Ali Hendry (she/her) is a Certified Holistic Life Coach (PCC) working with individuals, duos and groups. She specialises in relationship coaching, DEI consultancy, and public speaking training. Ali is a Relationship Columnist for DIVA Magazine, the largest global LGBT+ women and non-binary publication and hosts the Relationship Room on podDIVA. Ali is course director on an ICF Relationship Coaching Specialty, and TEDx Speaker (Survivor’s Guide to Jealousy).
Gary Mepsted
Gary is a writer, photographer, editor, mentor, and occasional director. He doesn’t have a website or dabble in social media, very much preferring to fly under the radar and will, as a consequence of the above, keep this bio brief. He revels in the anonymity of authors from past times who could go about their business largely unhindered. Oh, his favourite novel is Graham Greene’s, The End of the Affair. Make of that what you will.
Meesha Patricia
Meesha Patricia is a young and new adult fiction author, who has a love for anything fantastical and mysterious that she can pen down and blow up into a novel. Since starting to self-publish her stories during lockdown on online writing platforms such as Wattpad and Inkitt, she has completed a total of five books.
She has recently completed a two-year course in film, and aspires to turn her novels into films to inspire others and share her creativity with as many creative minds as possible.
Her pseudonym, Cheshire Celeste, narrates fantasy/mystery "tales of dread," the first of which are currently under production as a miniseries available to watch for free on YouTube, Most Mysterious Matters.
Emma Kelly
Emma’s work is comic, dark, and provocative. She experiments with sci-fi, historical, and political theatre. Emma has been commissioned in the UK and internationally, collaborating as a playwright with theatre companies, schools, and community groups. Recent projects include the critically acclaimed award-nominated show The Tower and What If Walls Could Speak, a theatrical promenade in The Regency Town House, Hove.
Sharon Duggal
Sharon Duggal’s second novel Should We Fall Behind (2020) was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s 2021 Encore Award and selected for Between the Covers, BBC TV’s flagship book show. Her debut, The Handsworth Times was The Morning Star’s ‘Fiction Book of the Year’ 2016 and Brighton City Reads 2017. Sharon has an MPhil in Creative Writing, is an RLF Fellow at Brighton University and is currently finishing her third novel.
Andrew Allen
Co-founder, Ironclad Creative
Andrew is a writer, director, host and workshop facilitator. His writing has been staged in London, Brighton, Edinburgh and the US.
Andrew wrote and directed One Woman Alien which features Katy Schutte. He has recently written a short story collection and has a number of short stories and novellas published by Candy Jar Books
Through his other business, Confidence in Communication, Andrew consults and trains people and corporations on public speaking, facilitation and confidence building.
Michelle Allen
Co-founder, Ironclad Creative
Michelle is a neurodivergent writer & multiple business owner. Michelle studied MA Screenwriting at the NFTS and was the winner of NBC Universal & SyFy Channel's Original TV Pitch Competition for the series Mimicry.
Michelle’s plays have been staged in London, Brighton and the US. In 2021 she was selected to attend the Curtis Brown Breakthrough Novel Writing programme for her manuscript, Otherlings, which will be released in Autumn 2024 as part of her new publishing company!
As a coach and consultant with her other business Infinite Upstart, Michelle works with creative business owners, artists and writers around their work, funding and visibility. She’s also the creator and host of the Resting Biz Face podcast.
Photo Credit: Henry Warren
Roxy van der Post
Photographer - The Writers’ Space Exhibition
Roxy (they/she) is the founder of Myosotis Film & Photography. Roxy is on a mission to explore how brand storytelling could be utilised as a force for social and environmental change. Remarkable everyday stories are at the core of Roxy's work.
From an early age, Roxy documented the changing landscape of their hometown in The Netherlands throughout the seasons. It wasn’t until their mid-twenties, when they discovered documentary filmmaking, that Roxy's gaze turned towards people.
