Designer

Julian Manev is an architect with a decade of experience working at Hall McKnight Architects. Since 2019, Julian has been a Member and, subsequently, an Expert Advisor at the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment in Northern Ireland. He teaches regularly at Queen's University Belfast School of Architecture and serves on the Royal Institute of British Architects Validation Board Panels. With long-term collaborators, he has won the Royal Society of Ulster Architects Young Architect Competition, and he received Sir Charles Lanyon Memorial Prize for Measured Drawing.

Photographer

Jos McGookin is a photographer currently based in Belfast. His work seeks to explore the interaction between physical and human geography, with a focus on culture, identity and memory. His ephemeral exhibition ‘Fell’ was featured in the 2024 Belfast Photo festival. His work has also featured in the Royale Arcade Academy show in 2023 & 2024, as well as ArtsFest 2022 & 2024. Jos is currently an MFA Photography student at Ulster University.

Visual Matter

Sophie Herxheimer is an artist and poet. Her work has been shown at Tate Modern, on a mural at Margate, and at her local allotments. Recent commissions include a set of images for The British Library and a permanent display at The Museum of Liverpool. Her collection Velkom to Inklandt was Poetry Book of the Month in the Observer and a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her book 60 Lovers to Make and Do was a TLS Book of the Year. She has illustrated six fairy tale and mythology collections, most recently The Mighty Goddess, written by Sally Pomme Clayton. Her latest collection is INDEX, a box of 78 collage poems published as a deck of prophetic cards.

Tógadh Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha i gceantar an Lagáin in Oirthear Dhún na nGall. Tá cónaí uirthi i nGaeltacht Chonamara anois. D’fhoilsigh Barzaz na cnuasaigh Solas Geimhridh (2023) agus Mainistir na Feola (2025). Ceapadh mar scríbhneoir cónaitheach in Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath i mbliana í. 

Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha was raised in the Laggan in East Donegal. She now lives in the Conamara Gaeltacht. Barzaz published both her collections to date: Solas Geimhridh agus Dánta Eile (Barzaz, 2023) and Mainistir na Feola (Barzaz, 2025). She is currently Irish-language writer-in-residence in DCU. 

Katharina Maria Kalinowski grew up in the North of Germany and started writing poetry to escape her home country’s obsession with rules. From 2017 to 2020, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the universities of Cologne, Kent, and Dublin, where she completed a creative-critical PhD on ecopoetics and ecotranslation. She taught Creative Writing at Düsseldorf University and currently leads workshops with cultural organisations in Derry. In 2026, she was selected for the Irish Writers Centre New Voices: North and the DCSDC Arts and Cultural Practitioners Award. She has published poetry and criticism in magazines and journals including The Honest Ulsterman, Feminist Translation Studies, The Irish Poetry Reading Archive, and The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry.