Editors
Our editors invite pitches and submissions on everything from the latest film releases to current affairs; from short research articles to dance reviews. Scroll down to see their profiles and specialisms.
Usha Akella: Poetry Editor
Usha Akella is the Poetry editor at Lucy Writers. She earned an MSt. in Creative Writing from Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, in 2018. She has authored four books of poetry, one chapbook and scripted/ produced one musical drama. Her most recent poetry collection is due for publication from Sahitya Akademi, India’s highest literary authority. Usha’s work has been included in the Harper Collins Anthology of Indian English Poets; she was selected as a Cultural Ambassador for the City of Austin in 2015, and has read with a group of eminent South Asian Diaspora poets at the House of Lords in 2016. Usha’s work is published widely and she is often invited to international poetry festivals in Trois Riviere, Slovakia, Nicaragua, Macedonia, Colombia, Slovenia, India etc. She is the founder of ‘Matwaala’, the first South Asian Diaspora Poets Festival in the US. She has won literary prizes and enjoys writing quixotic prose articles and interviewing poets and artists. She is the founder of the Poetry Caravan in New York and Austin which has offered several hundreds of poetry readings to those in women’s shelters, senior homes and hospitals. In response the City of Austin proclaimed January 7th as Poetry Caravan Day. To contact Usha and find out about the Matwaala Festival, contact her via this address: reachmatwaala@gmail.com
Elodie Rose Barnes: Books and Creative Writing Editor
Elodie Barnes is a writer of poetry, essays, short fiction, and book reviews. Her work appears regularly in online and print journals, and has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She splits her time between England, France, and Spain (never speaking the right language in the right country), and is working on collections of poetry and hybrid essays. Follow Elodie on Twitter @BarnesElodie
Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou: Founding-Editor-in-Chief & Arts Editor
Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou is a writer, the founding editor-in-chief and general arts editor of Lucy Writers, and has a PhD in English Literature from UCL. She holds a BA in English Literature from Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies from King’s College London and a Diploma in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Arts. She regularly writes on art, dance and literature for magazines such as The London Magazine, The White Review,Elephant, Art Monthly, The Arts Desk, Burlington Contemporary, Plinth UK, Worms Magazine and many others. From 2022-2023, Hannah managed an Arts Council England-funded project for emerging women and non-binary writers from migrant backgrounds, titled What the Water Gave Us, in collaboration with The Ruppin Agency and Writers’ Studio, which resulted in an anthology of the same name. She is also working on a hybrid work of creative non-fiction about women artists and drawing, an extract from which is published in Prototype’s 2023 anthology, Prototype 5. Read her work https://linktr.ee/hhgsparkles Follow her on Twitter @hhgsparkles and Instagram @hannahhg25
Guest Editors
Frankie Dytor: Guest Editor of BAROQUE
Frankie is a writer and researcher based at the University of Cambridge, where they are completing a PhD on renaissance afterlives in criticism, fiction and performance, c. 1855-1914. They have been a reviewer for Lucy Writers for several years and are currently involved in a number of projects that aim to queer the archive, such as ‘Queering the Museum’ for the RoyalAlbert Memorial Collections. Follow Frankie on Twitter @FDytor
Aysha Abdulrazak: Guest Editor of Disembodied Voices: Friendship during Covid-19
Aysha Abdulrazak is a writer, critic and illustrator. She has worked in the education sector for several years. Aysha is interested in the power of words and creating more productive self narratives. She is currently working on a project to promote self empowerment and self love in children. Follow Aysha on Instagram @aysha_azk. To see Aysha’s illustration project with Banan Alkhazraj, Bananabread, follow them on Instagram @bananabreadnco and @aa.doodles
Sumaya Kassim: Guest Editor of Disembodied Voices: Friendship during Covid-19
Sumaya Kassim is a writer, curator and critic based in Birmingham, UK. She writes fiction and critical essays on art and culture and speaks regularly at universities, art galleries and museums about decolonising histories and the power of storytelling. She is currently working on a creative non-fiction project on autoimmunity as well as her first novel. She tweets @_SumayaKassim
Susanna Crossman: Guest Editor of The Dinner Party Reloaded
Susanna Crossman is an award-winning Anglo-French fiction writer and essayist, published internationally in print and online. She has recent/upcoming work in Paris Review, MAI Journal, Neue Rundschau, (2019) S. Fischer, We’ll Never Have Paris, (Repeater Books, 2019), Trauma (DodoInk, 2020), 3:AM Journal, Berfrois & more. Susanna regularly collaborates and runs international hybrid arts projects. She is co-author of the French roman L’Hôpital Le Dessous des cartes (LEK, 2015) and her debut novel Dark Island will be published by Delcourt (FR) in 2021. For more follow her on Twitter @crossmansusanna or visit her website http://susanna-crossman.squarespace.com/ Rep: Craig Literary, NY.
Rochelle Roberts: Guest Editor of Postcards in Isolation
Rochelle Roberts is a writer and artist based in London. She has an MA in Creative Writing and Publishing from City, University of London and works as Assistant Editor for the art publisher Lund Humphries. In 2019, she was shortlisted for Streetcar Magazine’s Experimental Writing prize and her poetry has been published in Visual Verse, Eye Flash Poetry and Severine, amongst others. You can read her work on her website or follow her on Twitter @rochellerart and Instagram @rocheller.
Rochelle conceived, wrote and was guest editor of the series, Postcards in Isolation, for Lucy Writers.
Elodie Rose Barnes: Guest Editor of Life in Languages
Elodie Rose Barnes is an author and photographer. She can be found between Paris, Spain and the UK (usually mixing up her languages) while her words can be found in places such as Amethyst Review, Clover & White & Neologism Poetry Journal. Her work is heavily influenced by Modernism and surrealism. Find her online at her website elodierosebarnes.weebly.com and on Twitter @BarnesElodie
Elodie conceived, curated and guest edited, Life in Languages, for Lucy Writers.
Shirley Ahura: Guest Editor of Dance
Shirley is a writer, researcher and professional dancer/co-creator of The Archetype Dance Team. She has written on everything from race and gender to postcolonialism and popular culture, and her short interview with The Good Immigrant‘s Chimene Suleyman, was published independently in 2017. Shirley’s first love is literature, and in 2016 she completed her MA in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy with distinction at Goldsmiths University, where she investigated the politics of representation in the publishing industries across Britain & France.
Lucy Writers Artist
Sara Rivers: current artist at Lucy Writers
Sara Rivers is an artist who works in different media. She completed her foundation diploma at Brighton School of Art and her BA in Fine Art at Canterbury School of Art. She has also studied Art Therapy at St Albans School of Art, Hertfordshire. Sara founded the Creativity Centre, a space for outsider artists and those recovering from mental ill health, at Isledon Road (formerly Corsica Street), London. She is a founder member of the Otherside Gallery, and has created three short films, all of which were funded by the NHS. Sara is passionate about improving the services available to people experiencing mental ill health, and has led many campaigns against the continued cuts to day services in the borough of Islington. Sara is the current artist for Lucy Writers, and has designed all the artwork for the website to date. To view more of Sara’s work follow her new Instagram account @pixbysararivers and see her profile on Outside In.
