Chris McCabe was born in Liverpool in 1977, grew up there and studied for a degree in Literary Studies at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. He moved to London when he was twenty-four, and now works as a Joint Librarian at the Poetry Library on the South Bank. He has published poems in a number of places including Poetry Salzburg Review, Shearsman, Magma and Poetry Review. His first collection, The Hutton Inquiry, was published by Salt in 2005. This includes a sequence of poems that chronicle the circumstances surrounding the death of government science advisor Dr David Kelly in 2003 and Britain’s involvement in the war in Iraq.

Helen Mort was born in Sheffield in 1985. As a child, she loved language in general and poetry in particular and can’t remember a time when she wasn’t trying to write poetry, including dictating “an incoherent poem about trains” to her mum whilst at primary school. Although “not sure where the urge to write came from”, the sounds of words entranced her. She particularly delighted in “the way someone’s voice changes as they read aloud”. It’s a love that has grown and deepened with time, making her one of the most accomplished and engaging poets of her generation.

John McCullough was born in Watford in 1978 and grew up there during the eighties and nineties. He studied English and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia before completing an MA in Sexual Dissidence at the University of Sussex, followed by a PhD on Shakespeare and friendship. He still teaches creative writing there now, in addition to similar work at the Open University. His poems have featured in The Rialto, The Guardian, London Magazine, Ambit, Magma, Staple and Chroma. He’s an active and popular member of the Brighton literary scene.