Beth is an AuDHD creative writer, book club facilitator and well-being advocate from Caerphilly. She has organised and presented many writing, well-being and informative workshops around neurodiversity, inclusion and disability awareness. She writes about her experience of misdiagnosed mental health, gender bias and late diagnosed neurodivergence using genre bending ‘hermit’ essay styles and tarot to create a bold narrative. She has had work published in Happiful, The Independent, Mslexia, and upcoming Bloomsbury anthology ‘Divergent Writers: Disability, Illness, Neurodivergence, and Ableism in Creative Writing.

"I’m really looking forward to meeting and working alongside a cohort of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent writers to learn from each other, develop our ideas and give each other the confidence to share our experiences and truths how see them, not how we’ve been conditioned to see them. My aspiration is to leave with a plan of how to move forward and release my words into the world."

Demelza Monk is a Cornish-Welsh, multi-disciplinary theatre maker with invisible disabilities. They are co-founder and creative producer of Same Hat Theatre, a Cardiff-based theatre collective focused on accessible co-creation. They have also worked with include Taking Flight, Sherman Theatre and Birds of Paradise. Their work is driven by an inclusive mindset and a commitment to challenging industry norms.
Demelza has been writing since they were a teenager in Writing Squad Kernow. Their writing practice so far has been primarily poetry-based, but they are currently moving into writing for stage. Their writing is deeply influenced by their experience of neurodivergence and chronic pain, with intense sensory imagery and unsetlling viscerality. They have contributed writing to Coppice Theatre’s ‘Science Adventures: Deep Sea’ and Same Hat Theatre’s ‘This Body Moves’, and they are currently working on their first stage play.

"My aspiration for the programme is to stop planning and start writing. I think I have a fear of putting words on the page, and I’m hoping to learn some techniques to help work through perfectionism and creative block."

Hiba Fatima Ahmad is an interdisciplinary creative, storyteller and community organiser whose work spans poetry, non-fiction and theatre.
Their work treats literature as a method of inquiry, attentive to the spatial politics of injustice, abolitionist geographies, and the afterlives of trauma. She is currently developing a screenplay through a programme with Ffilm Cymru Wales and collaborating on a theatrical script exploring queer love and intergenerational memory linked to the India/Pakistan Partition. Alongside this, she regularly works with Taff Punks Collective and Queer Artists for Palestine facilitating workshops aspiring to create space for access and connection between artists and writers of any level.

“Writing, for me, is a way of making trouble, not for its own sake (for the most part) but as a way of refusing inherited narratives and asking what else might be possible. This programme feels like a chance to slow down, to take a breath and deepen my craft. I am excited for the chance to write alongside other writers, and hope to come away with stronger relationships, a clearer sense of myself as a writer, and work that feels more honest, more generous, and more fully mine.”

Jamie Harper Harrison lives in Swansea and has recently had work published in These Pages Sing magazine and performed as part of Rough Diamonds writing showcase. Through writing, she explores ideas close to her heart, including LGBTQ+ themes, neurodivergence, mental illness and living with disability. She is also inspired by the rich cultural history and landscapes of Wales, and these often feature in her work.

Right now, she is working on a manuscript for a fantasy novel set in a world that draws on these elements to create a new mythology, which will feature a neurodivergent lead character.

"I hope this programme will provide me with the tools and space to reignite my relationship with my writing and write the novel that I wish I had read when I was younger. I want to learn to write about people with all sorts of different lived experiences in a way that is nuanced and compelling. Ultimately, I want to develop my writing so I can use my lens to translate experiences like my own into something universal for readers."

Lisa is a writer and visual artist. She grew up in Hirwaun in the South Wales valleys, and now lives in Cardiff. A believer in art for everyone and diversity of voice, her work is informed by the impacts of the illnesses she lives with and the sensory experiences of AuDHD. Lisa's zine 'O, Sis!', about trying to get care for endometriosis was purchased by the Wellcome Collection, and Art UK recently published her article 'Drawing Strength', about the representation of women and power in drawing. She has an MA in English and Creative Writing from Cardiff Metropolitan University.

"I'm looking forward to the mentorship and support of the residency. I hope to learn techniques for using my lived experience to shape fictional characters, and to have new ideas and writing paths sparked by prompts, feedback and space for experimentation. I'd love help with plotting work, and I also hope to build community with my fellow writers."

Ruth Fabby [formerly Gould] has worked in the arts sector since the early 80’s. Ruth hails from Liverpool and currently resides in the beautiful Conwy Valley, currently a freelance creative practitioner developing arts projects, leading writing workshops and devising/writing her own work. Ruth founded DaDaFest, the internationally renowned disability arts festival based in Liverpool, and was the Artistic Director there from 2001 to 2019, before becoming the Director of Disability Arts Cymru.
Ruth trained in performance arts, speech and drama at Liverpool Theatre School and began working in disability and Deaf arts. She is a frequent international speaker on disability arts, delivering talks, chairing sessions and leading workshops worldwide, including across the UK, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. A Winston Churchill Travel Fellow (2014), she has built lasting global connections with disability arts organisations.

"I am eager to become more confident with my ideas and how I express them, exploring devices and nuances to make my work more relevant and richer. This opportunity will give me much needed guidance and support, and I am so eager to learn from the marvellous Kaite O’Reilly."

Susanna Callaghan is a writer and artist based in North Wales. Her writing journey started with short stories and two were published in anthology in 2018. She then worked on a psychological thriller that was longlisted in the PMJ Undiscovered Writers Prize 2023 and in the Top 100 of the Bath Novel Award 2024. Her poems were longlisted for the Emerging Poets Development Scheme 2024, and her first middle grade book was shortlisted for Guppy Open Submission 2025 Competition. She is currently writing short stories, editing her children’s book and working on a speculative historical mystery. https://susannacallaghan.co.uk/

"I want my characters to be unique individuals with all the complexity, diversity and messiness that make people interesting. I’m hoping this programme will fill gaps in my experience of others and give me the confidence to explore and share my own ways of experiencing the world."

Shazz is a writer from Ynys Môn. When her career as a health professional collapsed, she took an Open University Creative Writing course. Her novel-in-progress examines themes of widowing, with an abyss-black sense of humour. She examines the effects of toxic positivity and the impact of established societal stereotypes and stigma about grief.

She is also writing her memoir of a solo woman backpacker with multiple health challenges. Her memoir focuses on her time spent travelling through Pakistan in the early 1990s. She is a 2025 winner of the JKP writing prize.

"I want to examine how I convey the reality of living with a range of disabilities, chronic mental and physical health conditions such that the reader feels empathy, realism and cultivates understanding. I want to give readers the opportunity to question their own experience of societal values and judgements without prejudice and from a perspective of kindness.

I see this opportunity, not only to explore and develop my writing, but also as a chance to embrace my own disabilities, rather than hide or apologize for myself. I see this as invaluable in developing my truth as a writer and aspiring author."