Representing Wales Cohort: 2026-2027

Philippa Ball Lewis is a writer and freelance editor from Conwy. Her short stories have been published by Folding Rock and The Dark Mountain Project and shortlisted for Comma Press’ Dinesh Allirajah Short Story Prize (2024) and Moniack Mhor’s Emerging Writer Award (2025). She is interested in writing about the uncanny and the fantastical or experimenting with folklore, and her writing is often inspired by Welsh landscapes. Philippa is working on a collection of short stories and slowly finishing her first novel.

When not writing or reading, she is generally found in the mountains climbing/skiing/running or trying to stay one step ahead of her toddler, two cats and husband.

“I'm really excited about connecting with the other writers on the programme, and to learning from them and from my mentor. I'm looking forward to having more accountability and structure for my writing, and to being able to dedicate more time and energy to it over the next year so I can develop my skills. This is such an incredible opportunity; I'm excited to get stuck in!”

Vic Beswick is a novelist from Newport and was a participant in the London Library Emerging Writers Programme (2024–25). They are currently completing their debut novel, VIDEOTAPE, a dual-timeline work exploring queer love, bipolar disorder and grief.

“I see this programme as an opportunity to refine both craft and confidence at a pivotal stage in my development. I’m looking forward to being in conversation with other writers who are equally committed to the discipline of the novel. Writing can be isolating; I’m hoping to benefit from rigorous discussion, practical industry insight, and the accountability that comes from working within a cohort.”

Robbie Brewster is an illustrator/author who grew up in Bridgend and now lives near the Garth Mountain in south Wales. He wrote his first novel at fifteen titled ‘Summerland’ and went on to self-publish his first 250-page graphic novel in 2016, five years in the making. In 2005 Robbie was selected as writer/ director in the prestigious Sgrîn Cymru-led ‘Screen Gems’ short film scheme, the largest of its kind in Europe at the time. More recently, he returned to studying and gained an MA in illustration from Falmouth University. In 2023 he was longlisted in the highly competitive ‘First Graphic Novel Competition’ for ‘Click Memory Brick’.

Catrin Cheung is a Welsh/Cantonese writer working across poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction. Raised on Anglesey, she now lives in Dyffryn Nantlle, where she works as a freelance creative practitioner and yoga teacher.

Initially drawn to poetry as a means to vocalise complex emotions, her work explores her mixed heritage, and what this means in Wales. As a first-language Welsh speaker with Cantonese roots, she uses poetry to navigate the space between these cultures. Her work weaves themes of identity, nature and spirituality. Catrin is one of fifteen poets selected for the New Poets Collective (A Poet in Every Port) – a development programme facilitated by the Southbank Centre to support emerging poets. Her micro-literature piece, ‘Dienw’, won the inaugural National Library of Wales’ Tudalen competition in 2026.

“Through Representing Wales I’m hoping to gain confidence as a writer, develop my voice, and strengthen my craft. With a growing collection of poetry in both Welsh and English, but with very limited insight into the Welsh literary scene, I hope to learn about the publishing industry in Wales and how to progress and hopefully publish my work.”

Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh is a Nigerian author and practitioner, who writes across genres. Her poetry has been published in the Sọ̀rọ̀sóke: An #Endsars Anthology (Noirledge Poetry & Aflame Publishers, 2022); her contemporary short story To Buy an Expensive Dream featured in the Lipstick Eyebrows anthology (Honno, 2023); and she is also a contributor and co-complier of Many Roads-Women’s Personal Stories of Courage and Displacement in Wales (Honno, 2024).

Chinyere teaches creative writing workshops in schools and libraries across Wales and is the Founder of the C3 Centre for Creativity and Culture CIC, and the Nganga Performing Arts and Mobile Theatre, organisations that create platforms for creative and cultural expressions. She often reviews books for Nation.Cymru.

“Joining the Representing Wales cohort is my plunge into the sea of opportunities in the literary sector of Wales. I plan to leverage this opportunity to join a network that gives my creative offerings flight and visibility and that inspires my current novel”

Lal Davies is an award-winning filmmaker (EMWWAA Award for Contributions to Welsh Arts & Culture 2023) of South Indian/Southern Irish heritages, with three generations of her Indian family born in north Wales since arrival in 1919. Lal makes first-person narrative/short documentary film (Buckra Massa Pickney: Life of Enrico Stennett, Windrush Elder – Best Unrestricted Short The Gogs International Film Festival 2022) and has a multi-disciplinary art practice (Several Stages of Purification – National Waterfront Museum Swansea 2025). Her poem Hiding Injury features in the Chronic Women/Menywod Cronig anthology (Honno, 2026). Lal will be using the Representing Wales programme to develop her poetry.

“I hope Representing Wales might give me the concentrated time, space and resources to learn and focus on writing and see how relatively unfulfilled potential can develop.”

Pete Evans is a writer and tour guide based on the outskirts of Wrexham with Welsh/Romany roots. He is the author of two river books: Resurrection River on the Alun (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2017) and The Holy Dee (Llygad Gwalch Cyf, 2021). He wrote the text for a short children’s book, Sali and the Call of the Curlew, which was published by the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape, Bannau Brycheiniog, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Welsh Government. In 2025 he won the Cheshire Prize for Literature - Flash Fiction Category and collaborated on writing a murder mystery with Hope Community Library Writing group, Death on the Stwnsh (2025): The Wasabi Killings

When he is not rambling through the rich natural history and heritage of the Marches, with notebook in hand, he enjoys guiding tourists and community groups around north Wales and Chester.

“I have been working intermittently on two novels over the last few years; I’m looking forward to the programme giving me the support structure that I need, to focus on taking them to completion. I am hoping that mentoring by an experienced and successful author will bring all the ingredients of the magic recipe together to take my novels through to publication.”

Steffan Gwynn is a landscape architect and creative practitioner whose writing draws on oral history, art writing, and forms of essaying to explore place and the ways people relate to it. His work moves between page, site, and social context, engaging landscape as a lived and shared environment. He is a co-organiser of the Dyffryn Nantlle Deep Map project and has recently been involved in establishing a space in Wrexham for creative engagement with place, including collaborative and experimental approaches to mapping. He was awarded the O’r Pedwar Gwynt Essay Prize in 2024.

“The programme offers a structured opportunity to develop my writing within a supportive and critically engaged environment. Exposure to different approaches to creativity would be especially valuable in helping me think about structure, voice, and the possibilities of longer work”

Maggie Hampton is a poet from Pontypridd, who started to lose her hearing aged 4. She worked as a Disability Equality Trainer, eventually becoming Director of Disability Arts Cymru, working across Wales to improve access to the arts. She curated Living Where the Nights Jive (Parthian, 2008) a collection of stories by disabled female artists. Four of her poems have featured in anthologies, most recently in Tu Hwnt/Beyond (Lucent Dreaming, 2025) that has been shortlisted for the Discover Book of the Year (The British Book Awards, 2026). She was commissioned by Chapter Arts Centre and Deaf Gwdihŵ to write poems for Our Freedom: Then and Now, a project marking 80 years since VE and VJ Days. For this project, she began the process of learning to tell her poems in British Sign Language.

Maggie is determined not to let inaccessibility stand in the way and enjoys taking every opportunity to develop her writing.

“I am looking forward to being part of a community of writers, building networks and really developing the skills that will take my writing forward. I am also keen to look at creative ways of opening up opportunities for developing poetry within the Deaf community.”

Nia Jones is a poet, author, and historian. Being a member of Llyfrau Lliwgar, an LGBT+ reading group formed an early foundation for creative life. Nia is a co-founder of a trans community group in Gwynedd, a co-organiser of North Wales Pride, and is the editor of a new queer magazine Queer Pages. She facilitated a series of zine workshops for the trans community and organizes gigs and club nights to showcase trans women as musicians. Her poetry has been published in the zine and in the bilingual poetry collection Menywod Cronig/Chronic Women (Honno, 2026). Nia strives to create literature that is trans, Welsh and in the Welsh language. She is currently developing a collection of short stories.

“The element of mentoring is very important to me- to develop my collection and also gain advice on what to do with the work once it is written. Also, the process of working and developing my collection whilst sharing ideas about fiction as a genre will be very useful.”

Megan Lloyd is a writer, facilitator, and performer who is passionate about nature and her relationship with the world around her. She works freelance on several multimedia projects, including facilitating community workshops, performing spoken word poetry, and writing and performing for the dance theatre show 'Q-fforia'.

Her work appears in several anthologies, including O Ffrwyth Y Gangen Hon (Barddas, 2025) and Trysorau'r Nadolig (Barddas, 2025) and several issues of Ffosfforws (Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp). She won the spoken poetry competition at the 2025 Wrexham National Eisteddfod, and she hopes to publish more spoken word poetry in the coming year. Her first collection of poetry will be published by Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp in 2026. She shares her work on Instagram under the name @gwaithpapur.

“I will be working on an exciting project of new poems and presenting them in a different way than usual, with an emphasis on the spoken word and the music of words. I believe that this year of development will enable me to reach the next stage in my career by elevating my work, learning from literary innovators, and building my confidence in every aspect of what I do.”

Jay Teague is a poet and writing facilitator who taught English for more than twenty years before becoming a Poetry Therapy Practitioner and Mentor, working with individuals and groups internationally. They received awards and scholarships from the National Association for Poetry Therapy and Wales Arts International for pioneering work in that field. J is the founder of Out of the Blue Writing, which facilitates writing for wellbeing workshops, courses and training programmes.

Their poetry has featured in various publications; Academi, Fire Magazine, Coffee House, Poets Online, Borderlines, Refugee Week ezine; and in Jericho & Other Stories & Poems (Cinnamon Press, 2012). Several of their poems were exhibited in the 2022 ‘Cyd-fyw â'r Tir’ project with visual artists at Aberystwyth University.

They are currently in the process of compiling their first poetry pamphlet, exploring themes of identity, love, desire and the complexity of relationships.

“I believe that the programme will support me to develop the confidence to come into the power of my own voice, both written and spoken and I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge and experience of the literary world.”