Dr. Helen Lynch teaches Early Modern Literature & Creative Writing at University of Aberdeen. She has written two short story collections: The Elephant & the Polish Question (2009) and Tea for the Rent Boy (2018) as well as academic work on seventeenth century literature, gender and politics, including Milton & the Politics of Public Speech (2015). She has also written interactive online resources for school children, Beowulf for Beginners and The Knight with the Lion, and been Creative Director of WayWORD Festival since 2020. She also plays in ceilidh band Danse McCabre www.dansemccabre.com

Bea Livesey-Stephens is a recent graduate of the MA(Hons) Language and Linguistics programme at the University of Aberdeen where she was one of the co-founders of the WayWORD Festival. She is currently the WORD Centre intern, taking on, in addition, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion role for the WayWORD Festival in 2022. She will be hosting a Gaming Panel at this year’s festival.

The WORD Centre for Creative Writing brings together writers, performers, artists, scholars and audiences of North-East Scotland through creative projects, collaborations, events and performances.

From fiction and poetry, to creative non-fiction and collaborative mixed media, the projects of the Centre speak all the languages of North-East Scotland, from Doric and English, to Gaelic and Polish, engaging with its histories and cultural traditions. Reaching out beyond the university community to wider, diverse audiences, the projects of the Centre seek to connect and nurture North-East arts and artists, drawing a creative map of the region.

Founded in 2020 as part of University of Aberdeen's 525th anniversary celebrations, WayWORD is a student and youth-[ed, literary cross-arts festival for people of all ages, Consisting of workshops, panel discussions, exhibitions, author events and performance nights, the festival takes place annually over 5 days at the end of September. Tickets are FREE and the festival has BSL interpretation and captioning throughout.

Besides established creatives and new talent, the festival focusses on more unconventional forms of artistic expression: from comics, fan fiction, queer horror, song-writing, narrative gaming, to visual art, poetry, dance or spoken word performance: there should be something here for everyone.

www.waywordfestival.com