Who We Are

New Writing South is a non-profit organisation for writers living and working in South-East England. We exist to support and encourage new, emerging and established writers from diverse communities.

We offer a programme of courses, masterclasses and mentoring to help writers develop skills and careers. Our wide-ranging participation activities spark new conversations, nurture new writing and engage new audiences.

We cultivate and champion radical thinking. We strive to inspire both writers and readers to take risks and find joy in writing and literature.

Marlborough Productions is a catalyst for queer culture and community. We are a leading UK producer of queer-led, intersectional performance, parties, heritage and radical community gatherings

Led by Creative Director Tarik Elmoutawakil and Executive Director David Sheppeard, Marlborough Productions is a pioneering organisation that advances equality and social justice through producing intersectional queer culture. 

Over the past ten years, Marlborough Productions has been recognised nationally & internationally for commissioning innovative new work from extraordinary artists, reclaiming spaces to create and share culture and developing communities.

Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts is an interdisciplinary arts hub connecting University of Sussex with wider regional, national and international arts communities. The centre presents a seasonal programme of performance, dance, live art, film, music, discussion & debate and digital practices.

Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts is guided by the values championed by Sir Richard Attenborough (former chancellor of University of Sussex) in his life and work: human rights, social justice, creative education and access to the arts for all. Michael Attenborough CBE is the patron of Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

The Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence is a hub for research on sexuality and queer studies. We work with staff and students within the University of Sussex and we reach out externally to the local community in Brighton and Hove and an international network of artists, scholars and campaigners.

The School of Media, Arts and Humanities brings together a wide range of disciplines including English, History, Art History, Philosophy, Media, Film, Music, Drama, Journalism and Language Studies.

Thank you to The Coast is Queer advisory board member, Dr Samuel Solomon, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence. Sam is the author of Special Subcommittee (Commune Editions, 2017) and Lyric Pedagogy and Marxist Feminism: Social Reproduction and the Institutions of Poetry (Bloomsbury, 2019), and is co-translator from the Yiddish of The Acrobat: Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin (Tebot Bach, 2014).  He is currently at work on a literary labour history of queer typesetting and a second book of poems.

The School of Humanities and Social Science has a thriving research culture that informs courses at all levels, offering students an inter-disciplinary and applied approach to learning that seeks to examine the world that human beings have created for themselves. They create an academically rewarding, encouraging and enlivening environment and have excellent links with the local community.

The Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE) works across the globe to understand the major issues of the day. What challenges do climate, decoloniality , LGBTQI+, care and many others present to philosophy, politics and ethics?

CAPPE intervenes in the public arena extending beyond conventional academic boundaries, hosting public events that link a transnational public to the cutting edge debates of the day.

Thank you to The Coast is Queer advisory board member, Dr Vedrana Velickovic, Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Brighton where she teaches modules on Queer Writing, Black British, Postcolonial and European Literatures. Vedrana is the author of  Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literatures and Cultures: Imagining New Europe (Palgrave 2019) and several articles on Black British and post Yugoslav women’s writers, BrexLit and post communism. She is a Trustee of New Writing South and co-founder (with Dr Vy Rajapillai) of the DeCol Collective. As part of the Coast is Queer festival, she has co-curated/chaired events on teaching Queer writing, Queer writers from the post-Yugoslav region, and is passionate about bringing ethnically diverse and Black queer writers from/based in Europe to the festival (Pajtim Statovci 2022; Max Lobe 2023).

Simon Richardson
Okechukwu Nzelu
David Sheppard
Dr Samuel Solomon, University of Sussex
AFLO. the poet
Dr Vedrana Velickovic, University of Brighton

Simon Richardson is a journalist and producer who is passionate about promoting the work of queer authors. Since 2022 he has been Co-chair of London’s Literature Development Agency, Spread the Word. He is a former Trustee of New Writing South where he helped found the Coast is Queer in 2019.

An influential queer book is Modern Nature by Derek Jarman. You can listen to his adaptation of the book, recorded at the desk where Jarman wrote it and read by Rupert Everett here. 

In 2015, Okechukwu Nzelu won a Northern Writers’ Award. His debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Polari First Book Prize, and longlisted for the Portico Prize. His second novel, Here Again Now was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, the Polari Prize, the Jhalak Prize and the Diverse Book Awards. He is a non-executive director of ALCS and CLA, and Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. In 2024 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

An influential queer book for me is The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith – a book that knows so much about love, and failure and endings.

David Sheppard (he/him) co-founded Marlborough Productions in 2009. His work for the company has encompassed a wide range of projects from the groundbreaking national LGBTQIA+ touring theatre project New Queer of the Block to the heritage project Queer in Brighton. He specialises in live events made for unusual contexts that challenges notions about how and where queer culture can be presented. David was a Clore 18 fellow supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund in 23/24 and previously completed the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy fellowship in 2020.

It feels like a library of queer books has saved my life at different points, but today my pick is Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, it’s full of life, joy, sadness and wit.

Dr Samuel Solomon is Senior Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence. Sam is a poet and translator, and is author of Special Subcommittee (Commune Editions, 2017) and co-translator from the Yiddish of The Acrobat: Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin (Tebot Bach, 2014) alongside other academic and creative publications.  He is currently at work on a literary labour history of queer typesetting and a second collection of poems.   

The queer books that have had the most enduring hold on my imagination are Melville’s Moby-Dick; or, The Whale and Fran Ross’s Oreo.

AFLO. the poet (she/they) is an award-winning Brighton-based spoken word artist, activist and academic who embraces creative expression to disrupt the status quo and inspire social change. From protests on the streets of Brighton, to celebrations in hills of Jamaica, AFLO. has shared her rhythmic rhymes far and wide and has no intentions of stopping.

Her highlights from 2024 so far include continuing her residency at Brighton Dome, featuring in Verve Poetry Festival, and heading to the magical fields of Glastonbury to share her work and host the open mic on the Poetry & Words stage.

A queer book that has been most influential to me is All About Love by bell hooks. This is a book I have returned to many times over the last decade. It has helped me to make sense of myself, my childhood, and my relationships, as well as assisting me in laying better foundations to foster a life that is truly all about love. It’s a book I’ll never stop recommending!

Dr Vedrana Velickovic is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Brighton where she teaches modules on Queer Writing, Black British, Postcolonial and European Literatures. She is the author of Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literatures and Cultures: Imagining New Europe (Palgrave 2019) and several articles on Black British and post-Yugoslav women’s writers, BrexLit and post-communism. She is a Trustee of New Writing South and co-founder (with Dr Vy Rajapillai) of the DeCol Collective. As part of the Coast is Queer festival, she has co-curated/chaired events on teaching Queer writing, Queer writers from the post-Yugoslav region, and is passionate about bringing ethnically diverse and Black queer writers from/based in Europe to the festival (Pajtim Statovci 2022; Max Lobe 2023).

The most influential queer book – Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider (1984). I read this book for the first time in Serbian translation (by Women in Black and the Feminist 94 Press) in 2002 as it was widely circulated in in Labris, Belgrade’s first and only lesbian human rights organisation founded in 1995.  The book has influenced me profoundly and it contains some of the most powerful observations on intersectionality, solidarity and how queer activism and feminism can and should be done from a decolonial perspective.

Annie-mae Barker
Annie Kelesidou
Maggie Swan
Dixon Turner
Nik Raspa
Ari Williams

Annie Mae Barker recently graduated at the University of Sussex with a BA in Media and Communications, her cultural studies research dissertation focused on the creation of lesbian representation in media fandoms (broadly speaking). Her favourite queer book is The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri!

Nik Raspa is studying English Language and Media at Brighton University. Because of their interest in language and queer stories, they jumped at the opportunity to join the curator team. They have a great passion for Queer narratives and literature, and love being on a project aimed at uplifting a diverse cast of queer voices and texts. Their favourite queer book is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

Graziela Marianne Williams is a writer and educator living in Brighton. She studied a BA in History at the University of Sussex before progressing to an MA in Creative and Critical Writing, with a dissertation on the healing power of children’s literature. As a queer reader and writer, she has been a fan of The Coast is Queer Festival for some time, and so jumped at the chance to be a part of such a special event. Her favourite queer book is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.

Annie Kelesidou (she/they) has recently completed a Masters in English: Literature, Culture and Theory at Sussex University. A queer person and a first generation university student, they have a particular interest in the archiving of queer and working class lives. She applied to Sussex, in part, because of its connection to The Coast is Queer Festival, and is very excited to have now had the opportunity to work with them.  Queer fiction Annie loves and has recently reread is Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth, and a nonfiction she’d always recommend is Queer Body Power by Essie Dennis. She will happily devour any Ali Smith book that crosses her path. 

Maggie Swan is a student at the University of Brighton currently studying for her BA in Fashion and Design History. She has an interest in both queer fashion and queer literature, especially any historical queer literature. The Coast is Queer Festival means a lot to her as it is a safe space for her to enjoy her hobbies and interests with other queer and like minded people. Her favourite queer book is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.