Meet the team
Who we are, and what we do!
Jennifer McMahon - Joint Editor-in-Chief
Read award winning stories My Therapist Says and Life On Pluto by Jennifer.
Jennifer McMahon is an Irish author, and is represented by Brian Langan at Storyline Literary Agency. She was the overall winner of the 2024 All-Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Award (Public), a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year (2023), the Bridport Short Story Prize and many other notable awards, and was nominated for Best Of The Net 2024. She was a second-place winner of the Oxford Prize (winter 2023), and her work appears in Crannog, HOWL, Irish Independent (New Irish Writing), Oxford Prize Anthology (2022 and 2023), Fractured Lit, Heimat Review (issues 2 and 6), Empyrean, Books Ireland Magazine, Loft Books (issues IV and V), the Retreat West ‘Swan Song’ Anthology, and in many other places.
Jennifer loves to read stories and novels by Nuala O’Connor, Donal Ryan, David Butler, Kevin Barry, and enjoys tales from Granta and The New Yorker.
For inspiration from past writers, she looks to Chekhov, William Faulkner and James Salter. Jennifer is a big fan of Graham Greene, and has read most of what he wrote. She is also partial to the works of Kingsley Amis and Willa Cather.
Jennifer is so busy writing, she doesn’t have much time for television, but is partial to US cop shows like NYPD Blue and Chicago PD, superhero movies from the Marvel Comics Universe (because the writing and plots are so admirably tight), the works of Christopher Nolan and Dennis Vielleneuve, and the acting and direction of Kenneth Branagh. And if a film stars Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Joel Edgerton or Leonardo DiCaprio, she’s totally down with it!
Find Jennifer on Twitter at @AuthorJmcm and on the web at LinkTree.
Laura Cooney - Joint Editor-in-Chief
Read Laura’s poem Another Prayer, and her short story I Am Here, which was nominated for Best Of The Net.
Laura Cooney is from Edinburgh with an M.A in English Language and Literature from Glasgow University. Her first poetry chapbook Motherbunnet, published by Backroom Poetry in 2023, sold out of its limited print run and her next, entitled, No Trauma/No Drama (also with Backroom Poetry) is due for release in August 2024.
Laura’s work has been published most recently in Northern Gravy (issue 11) Loft (issue V) Punk Noir (‘Betrayal’ issue) The Voidspace Zine (various pop-ups) Roi Faineant Press (Cubiclemate 68) The Winged Moon (‘Ancient’ issue) and in many more places.
Laura is proud of her, as yet unbroken, 26 month acceptance streak and has certainly earned her motto, “She had no time, but did it anyway,” by also writing for children. Though, that is, as they say … another story.
She is seeking representation.
Laura loves to read stories and novels by Maggie O’Farrell, Claire Keegan, Margaret Atwood and Jenni Fagin and Graeme Macrae Burnet or for inspiration from past writers, she looks to Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury, Ian (Iain) Banks and Dickens. Laura is a fan of a wide range of poetry from Edwin Morgan, Norman MacCaig, William Carlos Williams and T.S Elliot to contemporary poets such as Brian Bilston, Imogen Stirling, Hollie McNish, Amanda Huggins and Sue Finch. In children’s writing she could write a whole other bio.
In terms of televison and film Laura prefers detective, law enforcement, mystery and medical shows as well as fantasy, sci fi and cheesy 90s action films. She has a penchant for cult classics; such as The Breakfast, Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Clerks. Laura has wide tastes when it comes to theatre and the arts and she spends a lot of time watching Tennessee Williams or Harold Pinter plays AND remakes. Laura also loves vaudeville and musical theatre, if any of this helps you at all. While we’re here, her favourite colour is Purple!
Find Laura on Twitter and Instagram: @lozzawriting and www.lozzawriting.com
Kerry Byrne - Assistant Editor
Read Kerry’s flash fiction ‘Mother/ Mother’, which was nominated for Best of the Net, and ‘COMPUTERS DIDN’T EXIST WHEN HE WAS AT SCHOOL’, published in BULL.
A fen wanderer and collie wrangler, Kerry Byrne is a writer who forages for story ideas in the sky-filled, watery landscapes she explores on dog walks. From a working-class background, she holds a B.A. (Hons) in English Language and Literature from Oxford University and an MLitt in Creative Writing with distinction from Glasgow University. Her short stories, flash fiction and poetry have found a home in BULL, Ellipsis Zine, Frazzled Lit, Libre, Lucy Writers, National FlashFlood, Paragraph Planet, Pidgeonholes, Roi Fainéant Press, streetcake magazine and other fine places. Her flash has been nominated for Best of the Net, and she has been a reader for Frazzled Lit since Issue 2.
A lover of short fiction, works that have stayed with her long after reading include the short novels Clear by Carys Davies, The End We Start From by Megan Hunter, The Long Dry by Cynan Jones and The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín; the short stories ‘Hippo Brain’ by Barlow Adams, ‘Salt Slow’ by Julia Armfield, ‘Green Afternoon’ by Vanessa Onwuemezi and ‘The Tree’ by Benjamin Percy; and the flash fiction ‘Death of a Projectionist’ by Ryan Griffith, ‘We Knew It Was the Fitzroy’s Rabbit’ by Sara Hills, ‘Girl Locks’ by Claudia Monpere and ‘Other People’s Dreams’ by Emily Rinkema.
On TV, she’s recently enjoyed Dennis Kelly’s extraordinary writing in Waiting for the Out and the dark humour of Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan’s Deadloch. She is currently binge-watching Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s Yellowjackets from behind a cushion. As for films, she regularly transports herself back to the 80s and 90s, with Stand by Me, The Lost Boys and Point Break among her favourites.
Find Kerry on X at @kerry__byrne and Bluesky at @kerrybyrne.bsky.social.
Emily Rinkema - Peer Reader
Emily Rinkema lives and writes in northern Vermont, USA. She has written about education for years, but has now shifted almost entirely to writing short fiction, partly as a way to escape the world, and partly as a way to understand it. She became obsessed with flash fiction a few years ago and now spends way more time than she probably should reading and writing it. Her stories have been chosen for the Wigleaf Top 50, Best Small Fictions, and the Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology, and published in Milk Candy, Vestal Review, JAKE, SmokeLong Quarterly, Variant Lit, and more. You can follow her on X, BS, or IG (@emilyrinkema), or read her work at https://www.emilyrinkema.com/
Louise Machen - Peer Reader
Louise Machen is a widely published Mancunian poet with an MA in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester. She has a collaborative pamphlet, The Words of Others are All We Have, with Hedgehog Press, a Forward Prize nominated collection, I Am Not Light, with Black Bough Poetry and a collaborative audiobook of poetry, Which Way the Words Grow.
Val Harris - Peer Reader
Val is a poet/publisher/author. Over the years she has written six novels and published with books including two by other authors, plus her debut book of poetry for children, A Classroom of Stars. She writes poetry for adults and children and has been published widely in magazines and featured in anthologies.
Connect with her on @dragontripper on Twitter and @valpoet on Instagram.
Paul Short - Peer Reader
Paul Short is a Pushcart-nominated poet from Newcastle upon Tyne, currently working on his debut pamphlet. Paul has been widely published, with work featuring on BBC Upload, Eat The Storms Podcast, A Thousand Shades of Green Podcast and in publications including Broken Spine Arts, Black Bough Poetry, Dust Poetry, Hedgehog Poetry, Flight of The Dragonfly, Dark Poets Club, The Starbeck Orion, and more.
Inspired by his working-class roots and Northern culture, Paul’s work explores societal expectations, nature, place, relationships and identity.
Paul also runs the poetry blog ‘The Book Bag’ which platforms emerging and established writers and Write Here, Right Now online poetry writing group. In November, Paul will be hosting The Book Bag Open Mic Sessions online.