Keiron Higgins, Andrew McMillan, Nabeela Ahmed, Kim Moore and John Siddique provide answers in verse.

Keiron Higgins

Keiron Higgins is a poet from Halifax, UK. Before writing and performing poetry he was previously a musician and DJ to which he played in a reggae/funk and soul collective based from Leeds. He blurs the lines of performance poet and also as a “punk poet”due to specialising in rhythmic social commentary and pieces based on mental health, his love of musical subgenres and general outlooks on life, his peers have dubbed him “The (suedehead) bard of Halifax” as since 2012 he has shared the stage with the likes of Toria Garbutt , Atilla The Stockbroker, Steve Ignorant, Henry Normal, Brix Smith and Jeffrey Lewis to which he has been met with critical acclaim for his peers and audience.

His work has been featured across Halifax in a number of different collaborative efforts with the Square Chapel, performing for the reopening of the Piece Hall after the pandemic and his name adorns a poem he wrote specially for a bar called “The Meandering Bear” which opened in 2019 in the Halifax town centre.

With his writing, he has released a total of 6 self-published books, been in a painted portraits gallery, and has had work featured in numerous zines and anthologies.

Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan’s debut collection physicalwas the only ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award. The collection also won the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, a Somerset Maugham Award (2016), an Eric Gregory Award (2016) and a Northern Writers’ award (2014). It was shortlisted the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2016, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Polari First Book Prize. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation forAutumn 2015. In 2019 it was voted as one of the top 25 poetry books of the past 25 years by the Booksellers Association. His second collection, playtime, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2018; it was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Autumn 2018, a Poetry Book of the Month in both The Observerand The Telegraph, a Poetry Book of the Year in The Sunday Times and won the inaugural Polari Prize. His third collection, pandemonium, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021, and 100 Queer Poems, the acclaimed anthology he edited with Mary Jean Chan, was published by Vintage in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.Physical has been translated into French, Galician, German and Norwegian editions, with a double-edition of physical &playtimepublished in Slovak in 2022. He is Professor of Contemporary Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His debut novel, Pity, was published by Canongate in 2024, and was named as one of the top 20 books of 2024 by The Independent. It has been translated into numerous languages including Norwegian, Swedish, French, German, Turkish and Slovak.

Nabeela Ahmed

Nabeela Ahmed is a writer, multilingual poet and spoken word artist. Her poetry manuscript will be published in 2025 by Yaffle Press. She published her novella, Despite our Differences, in 2018. She delivers readings and creative writing in schools, libraries, museums, for First Story, the National Literacy Trust, online and at various festivals including The Brontes and Jaag. She has compiled two anthologies from these sessions. Her poems have featured in collaboration with artwork and photography atgalleries such as Salts Mills and Trapezium Arts. She hosts Bradford Writes, which platforms local published writers and is responsible for organising the first public Pahari Mushaira in Britain through Intercultured Festival. She has featured on Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen on Radio 4 and her project, The Pahari-Pothwari Literature Project has been selected to deliver new writing for City of Culture Bradford 2025.

Kim Moore

Kim Moore’s pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolveswas a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Her first collection The Art of Falling(Seren 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection All The Men I Never Married(Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her first non-fiction book What The Trumpet Taught Mewas published by Smith/Doorstop in May 2022. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University andthe Deputy Programme Leader for the MA/MFA in Creative Writing. A hybrid book of lyric essays and poetry Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism was published by Seren in March 2023.

John Siddique

John Siddique is an author and sacred teacher. He has written nine books of poetry and non-fiction, including the recent ‘Signposts of The Spiritual Journey’and ‘SO’. John is also the Project Co-ordinator for the Royal Literary Fund & WritersMosaicin The North of England. He has been featured in Time, The Guardian, Granta, The Bookseller,CNN and the BBC,and his meditations and teachings have connected with millions of people globally, offering deep insight into the nature of life and self-discovery. He has served as Canterbury Laureate and British Council Poet-in-Residence at CSU-Los Angeles. He is also an Honorary Writing Fellow at Leicester University.