Writing Well 2025-2026 Cohort

Helen Comerford is the Carnegie nominated author of the Young Adult superhero rom-com, The Love Interest. She spent a decade as a theatre stage manager, walking and talking very quietly backstage in theatres around the country. Her time working at Shakespeare’s Globe, and with Wise Children Theatre Company, cemented her love of theatre and allowed her to travel around the world looking for stories. After squeezing her writing into days off and train journeys, Helen left the theatre to settle in South Wales and dedicate herself to writing joyful books and leading engaging creative writing workshops. When she’s not at her desk, or on the road, you can find her hiking up the hills of Wales with her dog, Cocoa. 

"I am incredibly excited to be part of this year's Writing Well Cohort and cannot wait to gain the skills needed to weave wellbeing and nature into my creative writing workshops. The support offered to develop a series of events for my local area (Torfaen) will be a gamechanger for my practice and, hopefully, bring fun and helpful opportunities to my local community too."

Megan Lloyd (she/her) is a writer, facilitator and performer from Eryri. She works freelance on several multi-media projects, including facilitating community workshops, performing spoken word poetry and writing and performing for the dance theater show 'Q-fforia’.  

Since joining the Project Kathod crew in Tŷ Newydd at the beginning of 2024 she has collaborated on many exciting projects including the exhibition 'Yr Ysgwrn Yn Ysbrydoli'. Her work appears in Ffosfforws 5 and 6 and in O Ffrwyth Y Gangen Hon. She likes to experiment with the boundaries of poetry and music and shares her work on Instagram under the name @gwaithpapur. 

"I am very excited to have the opportunity to learn from a mentor and from such experienced facilitators. I'm a strong believer in the powers of nature and creativity on health and well-being and I can't wait to bring more of this to my practice as I develop as a facilitator. Thank you Literature Wales for this wonderful opportunity.  "

Tracey Rhys is a Bridgend-based writer, non-fiction editor and a mother-of-two. Her poetry can be found in Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Planet, Ink Sweat & Tears, The High Window, Dreich and anthologies such as Lipstick Eyebrows, Cast a Long Shadow, Yer Ower Voices: Dialect Poems from Wales, and Free Verse: Poems for Richard Price.  

Poems from Tracey’s first pamphlet, Teaching a Bird to Sing, were adapted into poetic monologues for two plays by Tim Rhys, directed by Chris Durnall. Listed for various competitions including the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Competition, the Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition and Cardiff International Poetry Competition, she was a winner of the Poetry Archive’s Now WordView competition in 2020. Tracey’s debut poetry collection, Bathing on the Roof, is a new release from Parthian Books.  

"I am delighted to have been selected as a beneficiary of the Writing Well scheme from Literature Wales. Over the year ahead, the course will build my confidence as a facilitator and demystify the process of establishing a creative writing programme in the community.

As the mother of a child with autism, I understand the stresses and anxieties that parent-carers deal with daily. My poetry workshops will engage with the natural world and encourage participants to discover the joy of writing for writing’s sake. By reflecting on their own needs and also on the vastness and intricacies of the environment, I hope to empower parent-carers to find their voices, and to know they are heard.  "

Gillian Brownson is a Writer, Spoken Word Artist, Actor & Storyteller. She has a love of writing Fiction, Screenplays, Poetry and Stories in Rhyme for Children & Young People. She has had work long listed for the Bloomsbury New Children’s Author Prize and is currently working on her Middle Grade Novel, The Door in the Dark Well. Gillian has produced Children’s Books, Poetry & Performance for BookTrust Cymru, Creative Connections (as part of the Wales-Ireland Ports, Past & Present Programme) and also while working as a Bard on Cambridge University’s Public Map Platform. 

As a Contemporary Cyfarwydd for Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival, Gillian explored stories & creative writing in schools, as she continues to do for The Arts Council of Wales’ Lead Creative Schools scheme, and with the Centre for Arthurian Studies at Bangor University. She lives in her home town of Holyhead with her husband, two daughters, a little dog a big cat! 

"As part of Writing Well, I’ll be using creative writing as a vehicle to empower Children & Young People who may have experienced Poverty or Trauma. I want to strengthen my skills in empathic & reflective facilitation, while seeking out places of calm and inviting young minds into safe creative spaces where they can be authentically expressive and shape their voice, giving them the confidence to pursue a fruitful future. I’m grateful to Literature Wales for the support on what feels like a very important step in my journey as a Writer."

DUKE AL is an award-winning spoken word artist, published poet, hip hop artist and creative practitioner. Writing rhymes is his therapy. From a young age, he would scribble raps and poems in his old lyric book. It was his way of expressing himself; an escapism to challenge his OCD. A passion of words, flow and rhyme flared. After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 23, the pen became even more vital, helping him process and articulate his emotions.

Now, DUKE AL uses his craft to create impactful change, one rhyme at a time. His latest collection IMAGINE WE TRADE BODIES WITH SHEEP, (2025 Lucent Dreaming). His work has been featured in Go.Compare Six Nations 2025, FAW, Cardiff Rugby, Creative Cardiff, TNT Sports (Sport in Words for Black History Month on Sir Lewis Hamilton), BBC Wales, FujiFilm UK, Cardiff Metropolitan University, and BBC Scrum V for The Six Nations 2022.

- Instagram and X: @dukealdurham

"'I am full of gratitude to be selected to be a part of this fantastic programme! Writing for wellbeing is something I have practiced naturally for a long time, using poetry as self-therapy. I am excited to take my experiences in facilitation to the next level, developing my skills and working on my own project around people living with OCD. This is close to my heart and something I have wanted to do for a long time, this opportunity means a lot to me."

Durre Shahwar is a writer, researcher and creative facilitator with a PhD in autofiction and Welsh-Pakistani identity from Cardiff University. She is the co-editor of Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature (2024, 404 INK) and Just So You Know(2020, Parthian Books). She was the recipient of a Future Wales Fellowship and highly commended for the Morley Lit Prize.

Durre has been a creative writing tutor at Cardiff University. She utilised her skills in facilitation to run workshops as part of Literature Wales Writers Commissions alongside Özgür Uyanik, and was part of the Natur a Ni Project in partnership with Natural Resources Wales.

- Durreshahwar.com

“I’m looking forward to deepening and building upon my knowledge of facilitation by learning from other practitioners to specifically develop workshops for South Asian communities around mental health. It’s important to consider racial and cultural frameworks when thinking about writing as wellbeing, and I’m grateful for the space to explore how writing can inform therapeutic practices and vice versa in a way that is intersectional and informed when it comes to cultural specificities and sensitivities.”