Meet The Team

I am passionate about making arts and creativity accessible to all, and to ensure we offer opportunities for anyone to engage with words, especially for those that may feel that arts are not for them. I believe creativity can change people’s lives. I am keen to promote people-centred environments, spaces for collaboration and co-production working closely with people. I have over 15 years experience working in the arts sector in Mexico and the UK, at Tequila Jose Cuervo Cultural Division, The Mighty Creatives and Attenborough Arts Centre. I have a PhD on learning dialogue in museums. I am a Trustee for The Spark Arts. Growing up in Mexico, I enjoyed reading Hispanic Literature. One of my favourite books is The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Perez Reverte, a book encompassing art, chess and mystery. Octavio Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude is a classic book that influenced my own views about Mexican identity.

Abigail is a poet, workshop organiser, playwright and educator who is interested in the merging of personal and political writing. Her journey began with the Mouthy Poetry collective at the age of 9 and now 10 years later, manifests in many different ways and alongside multiple organisations. These organisations include but are not limited to: Nottingham City of Literature, Nottingham Playhouse and Writing East Midlands . Within these organisations I explore the ways in which playwriting, poetry and educational workshops can maximise accessibility for all audiences - whether this is through the themes I explore or the way I choose to format my work. My writing and practice is fundamentally an exploration of human empathy and what it means to be a human who cares.

I joined the City of Literature when we were in the UNESCO bidding process back in 2014, while also working for Oxfam to promote their local musical festival, Beeston Oxjam, and setting up a local magazine and several community focussed projects. Before that, I have had every job imaginable, from a postal worker to a cheese-packer; a barman in Portugal to a tulip-picker in Holland. I am fascinated by words, and how they can literally change lives: I am very much an example of this. My role at Nottingham City of Literature is to understand, interpret and promote both the things we do hee centrally: the wonderful projects we are fortunate to deliver; and to engage with the wider writer/creative practitioners in the city . This is a forever-rewarding job, as I get to see close-up what a vibrant diversity of talent we have here: we are a city that punches far above its weight when it comes to words and I am privileged to document that: to watch established talent thrive; new talent blossom.

Hi there, I’m Cara, and I support project development, creative engagement and our Youth Advisory Board here at Nottingham City of Literature. While I officially joined the Nottingham City of Literature team in 2022, my relationship with the City of Lit truly began over a year before when they selected me to represent Nottingham in the UNESCO Cities of Literature’s international poetry competition, and I won! As someone who's gone from being a young person supported by City of Lit to becoming a member of the team, I’m able to bring this unique experience to my work as we continue nurturing relationships with young people and creatives, who are embarking on their own exciting journeys with literature. My desert island would have to be the short story collection Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola. The book takes mythical tales from around the world and reinvents them to create a really rich (yet still super readable) collection of love stories centring characters from across the global majority. I’m really lucky to be part of the Nottingham based poetry collective GOBS, which was created by two incredible local poets Bridie Squires and Ioney Smallhorne (previously part of the Mouthy Poets collective). Being able to create, perform and explore in the company of incredible poets in my own community has been hugely influential for me, and a huge part of my creative development. Creativity can’t exist without community!