About me
Creativity is a radical act
I’ve won the Hachette GYOS prize, the Spilling Ink short story prize, the New Writing South Award, been shortlisted for the Myriad First Editions prize, the Writers & Artists Prize, HG Wells Short Story Prize and have had writing published in The Manchester Review, The Kenyon Review, 3am Magazine and more.
NEW interviews on Strange Horizons: No Defeat is Final Pat Cadigan and Nicola Griffith and It’s About Connection: Interview with Emily Tesh, Julianne Pachico and Hanna Thomas Uose
My short story ‘The Thunder Mutters’ was published in Other: the 2024 Speculative Fiction Anthology with new non-fiction for 2025 published in Backstory magazine. I was contributing editor of ‘So Long as You Write‘ (Dear Damsels) and the Write like a Grrrl anthology (Grind and Bearing) 2022. My journalism has featured in The Times, The Telegraph, the Guardian, Evening Standard among others.
My poetry can be found in Streetcake magazine, The Lake, the Spectrum anthology by Renard Press, the Grito du Mujer anthology, and many other lovely places. In 2023, I received the Arts Council England DYCP award. I have a Masters with distinction and a PhD in Literary Studies/Creative Writing.
I am the proud founder of Write like a Grrrl, courses and workshops that support folk across the world find joy in creativity and encourage self-compassion. I have facilitated workshops for Spotlight, Sotheby’s, STUC and many others and was Dear Damsels’ creative advice columnist for a couple of lovely years!
You are so wrong about what matters and where the eyes should visit. The things you find so important–the attention, the prizes, the approval–yes, they matter, and never so much than when they disappear. But I’m old now, and I’ve walked a long and rocky road, and what really mattered, what should matter most to you, is the rare and gorgeous experience of reaching out through your work and your actions and connecting to others. A message in the bottle thrown toward another frightened, loveless queer; a confused mother; a recently dejected man who can’t see his way home. We get people home; we let them know that we’re here for them. This is what art can do. Art should be the arm and the shoulder and the kind eyes–all of which let others know you deserve to live and to be loved. That is what matters, baby. Bringing people home.
Tennessee Williams
Kerry Ryan 