Who We Are

London Lit Lab was created by Lily Dunn and Zoe Gilbert.

We believe writers can learn a huge amount from each other. We set up London Lit Lab to share our writerly experience, knowledge and inspiration with up-and-coming writers. Since 2016, we have been designing and teaching our own London Lit Lab courses, and mentoring writers of both fiction and non-fiction. We also teach creative writing courses at other organisations including the British Library, Riba, Mslexia, Arvon Foundation, St Mungo’s, Bath Spa and Birkbeck universities, Writers & Artists and Google.

Lily Dunn

 

Dr Lily Dunn is an author, mentor and academic. Her debut nonfiction, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling, a memoir about the legacy of her father’s addictions (W&N) was The Spectator and The Guardian Best Nonfiction Book, 2022. Her forthcoming book: Into Being: The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform is due to be published by MUP in 2025. She is also author of a work of fiction, Shadowing the Sun (Portobello Books, 2007), and co-editor of A Wild and Precious Life (Unbound, 2021), an anthology of stories on recovery from mental illness and addiction. She teaches narrative nonfiction and memoir at Bath Spa University and co-runs London Lit Lab.

‘Lily’s memoir course was first rate. I’ve attended other courses, but this has been by far the best!’ Eva

‘Lily has helped me uncover an unstoppable and undeniable urge to navigate and plot a course through my memories.’ Mia

‘Lily Dunn was exceptional. She knows her material well and delivered it confidently and in accessible chunks to a diverse group of writers and learners. I would do a continuation of this course if one were to be made available.’ James

‘I would like to thank Lily for being such a wonderful giving person and tutor. I really felt that she held the space well for the participants, which is so important considering the nature of the course. Lily was brilliant.’ Denise

‘The experience of forming new ideas through Lily’s mentoring enabled me to find my real, true voice. I have now finally found exactly the right agent for the book, and the mentoring relationship is triggering unexpected opportunities, as Lily and I are finding new ways to work together, which feels wonderful.’ Carole

Zoe Gilbert

Zoe Gilbert is an author, creative writing teacher and mentor specialising in short and long form fiction. Her first novel, Folk (Bloomsbury, 2018), was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and adapted for BBC radio. Her second, Mischief Acts (Bloomsbury, 2022), was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Both draw on the folklore and landscape of Britian to create alternative worlds. Her stories have been published in anthologies and journals around the world, been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and have won prizes including the Costa Short Story Award. She is a writer and presenter on nature podcast As The Season Turns, shortlisted for the British Podcast Awards 2023, and she has written a libretto based on Folk, with the resulting song cycle receiving its world premiere in 2024. She has many years’ experience in mentoring writers, and is co-director of London Lit Lab.

“Zoe consistently offers excellent insights and points to consider that never fail to strengthen my work and help me see problems I’ve hitherto been blind to. Her sensitivity and positive approach ensure the critique group is always supportive and the advice constructive.” – Kerry

“Zoe has an enviable ability to get to the true heart of your work and tease out what the reader wants to see, hear and experience.” – Ali

“Before I started coming to Zoe’s critique group, I doubted my ability to write short stories. But in large measure thanks to Zoe’s thoughtful, supportive and perceptive suggestions and edits, I’ve now had two stories published in anthologies.” – Sharon

Ruby Cowling

Ruby Cowling has been writing, studying, teaching and continuously imbibing short fiction for over a decade. She regularly reads for international and UK competitions; her own short fiction has been published in over 40 journals and anthologies and has won awards including The White Review Short Story Prize, the London Short Story Prize and the Edge Hill Readers’ Prize. Her collection This Paradise (Boiler House Press, 2019) was longlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and shortlisted for the 2020 Edge Hill Prize. She is an Arvon tutor and was formerly Managing Editor of Short Fiction journal. She is passionate about the short story form and keen to unlock its joys for as many other writers as possible.

“I really feel Ruby ‘got’ my story, and had read it carefully. What was also very helpful and encouraging was to be told what worked about it as well as what I could do to improve it. A very sensitive and incisive reading.“

“Great tutor, really engaging – lots of new ideas!“

Anna Freeman

Anna Freeman is a novelist, the host of BBC Radio 4’s programme Sketches: Stories of Art and People, an associate creative writing lecturer at Bath Spa University, and a producer of literary events. Her first novel, The Fair Fight (W&N), is set within the world of female prize-fighters in 18th century Bristol. It won The Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize 2013, was optioned by the BBC. Her new novel, Five Days of Fog (W&N), follows the last days of a crumbling female gang in 1950s London, during the great smog.

‘Cracking… packs a punch’ – Sunday Express

‘A hearty recommendation for Anna Freeman’ – Guardian Books

‘Wonderfully imagined… a brilliant debut’ – The Times

Ennis Welbourne​​

Ennis Welbourne (they/them) is a marginalised writer drawn to experimental storytelling and writing for recovery. They are currently working on an illustrated memoir, Problem Behaviour, and a speculative fiction novel, Break Tender. Ennis runs peer-to-peer online spaces under the banner Access Narrative for those who are neurodivergent, disabled, poor and who have experienced trauma. You can connect with Ennis via their Substack newsletter. They are a Bath Spa creative writing graduate and work part-time for London Lit Lab as Assistant Editor.

“This group has been a huge part of my development as a writer. It has cultivated a safe space in which for me to grow, connect and lay the foundation of a regular writing practice. As well as encourage me to be in community with people of similar and intersecting identities and experiences to my own.

“I have found it incredibly grounding and inspiring each week to meet with trans (and disabled) writers of all ages and practices and backgrounds to reflect on our positionality and place in the writing world as well as in our own lives. I think the trans writers group is revolutionary in instigating a space for community care, self-development and uplifting the voices of marginalised writers in a real way.”

“Every two weeks on a Friday morning I have a date with my laptop. However much the chores and admin are piling up, the two hours of the Accountability Club are set aside for me and my writing. Being with a group of people who are all doing the same thing is a great motivation.  I type like mad, review old pieces, play around with writing prompts, or just sit and think. I can feel my mind expanding into the space. No excuses, but no pressure either. Brilliant.”

Tania Hershman

Tania Hershman’s second poetry collection, Still Life With Octopus, was published by Nine Arches Press in July 2022 and her debut hybrid novel, Go On, a “fictional-memoir-in-collage”, was published by Broken Sleep Books in Nov 2022. Tania is editor of Fuel: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Flash Fictions Raising Funds to Fight Fuel Poverty (Feb 2023). Her poetry pamphlet, How High Did She Fly, was joint winner of Live Canon’s 2019 Poetry Pamphlet Competition and her hybrid particle-physics-inspired book ‘and what if we were all allowed to disappear’ was published by Guillemot Press in March 2020. Tania is also the author of a poetry collection, a poetry chapbook and three short story collections, and co-author of Writing Short Stories: A Writers’ & Artists’ Companion (Bloomsbury, 2014). Tania has a PhD in creative writing inspired by particle physics and is currently working on an Arts-Council-DYCP-funded hybrid pamphlet inspired by the collision of neuroscience and non-human characters from Star Trek. www.taniahershman.com

“Thank you for a wonderful workshop yesterday, it had such a good pace to it, swerving all over the place and keeping my brain on its toes (now I have a fun image of my brain with little feet sticking out on tippy toes!) the readings informed the writings and I appreciated you showing us the possibility of writing, and as always, reminding us that we have permission to play!”
 
“This was the best £10 I have spent all year! The writing exercises were fun, but somehow also functional, the emphasis on play was a balm. And the readings! Just wonderful.”

‘Tania Hershman is such a generous, bright tutor and writer. The course unlocked something and freed me in many ways. The support you’ve given me – emotional and practical – was dearly needed and much appreciated!”

Andrew Kauffmann

Andrew Kaye Kauffmann is a coach, a writer and a tutor of creative writing. The Centre for Mental Health’s 2023-24 Writer in Residence, he has lived with a mental health condition for over 20 years. In the past, a campaigner for health and care charities such as Age UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Royal National Institute of Blind People, today he writes on topics such as mental health, being a kidney donor, and being a carer. He has completed a CPD-accredited introduction to Therapeutic and Reflective Writing with The Professional Writing Academy, and recently completed training with the Institute for Narrative Therapy. A coach who focuses on stories as a tool to support individuals undergoing life transitions, he’s facilitated workshops on writing for brainstrust and Carers UK. Elsewhere, he’s led workshops on writing challenging material for The Literary Consultancy, Out on the Page and The Write Salon. A freelance journalist who has been published by HuffPost UK, Andrew is looking forward to beginning his MA in Creative Writing and Wellbeing at Teesside University. Here is his LinkedIn and Website.

“…I thought Our Queer Stories was a really perfect introduction into the world of queer writing. it felt like everyone was eager and engaged with the material, and there wasn’t any pressure to produce… my best story ever, just some good encouragement that I could at some point.”
 
“I got so much out of (the) Queer Storytelling course, I’m so grateful! I often consult my notes from it and get creative ideas, or conceive of new approaches… It was a stunning workshop and freed me up in a short story I was having problems writing, and also freed me with some poetry, in finally acknowledging my fluidity.”

Katie Watson

For nearly a decade, Katie has worked in the charitable sector with vulnerable and disadvantaged adults. In 2017, she was awarded a scholarship to train as a trauma-informed writing guide for Write Your Self, a global writing movement aimed at supporting women to reclaim their stories after experiencing trauma. She is the first guide based in the UK to be trained in the methodology. Katie is also a published writer, and in 2017, she was runner-up in Mslexia’s prestigious women’s poetry competition. She is also a qualified teacher and psychotherapist, and currently works with LGBTQ+ clients. She has also served on the board of trustees for Manchester Rape Crisis for the past 5 years.  Find out more about Katie here.

“The course was well structured and paced. The flow week to week was amazing – like a scaffolding system where ideas interconnect and support each other. I particularly valued the focus on practice rather than output. I really appreciated the step by step approach, the clear introduction, the workbooks given in advance, and your open, gentle and responsive approach to us all.”

 

“I found the course overall to be fantastic. The content was dynamic, interesting and thought provoking. I anticipate that I will be using the learning materials for future reference. I found the structure to be accessible and manageable. I thought the format was consistent which was great and I appreciated the variation between taught material, space for us as a group and breakout rooms.”

 

“I particularly appreciated the discussion of how trauma can impact mind and body and the exercises where we considered the positive factors that contribute to our writing space. These enabled me to understand how trauma had had such a negative impact on my writing   practice and health. I have since been able to write in my reflective journal again.”

Robin Mukherjee

Robin Mukherjee has contributed extensively to television drama, both returning series (The Bill, Eastenders, Casualty, Medics, etc.) and serials (including Grushko with Brian Cox and Andy Serkis, and Plastic Man with John Thaw and Frances Barber). He has also written for radio and theatre. His most recent film, Lore, was critically acclaimed worldwide, winning Best Adapted Screenplay at the Australian Writers Guild Awards, the Public Prize at Locarno, and many others. It was Australia’s official entry to the Oscars. His original three part serial, Combat Kids, for CBBC/BBC1 was nominated for a BAFTA. Recent work includes Hetty Feather for CBBC, and Judge Dee for Endemol. He is currently adapting Paul Scott’s (Booker Prize winning) novel Staying On for cinema, supported by the BFI. His book, The Art of Screenplays – A Writer’s Guide, is published by Kamera Press, and his novel, Hillstation, by Oldcastle Books. He teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, and is an associate tutor at London Lit Lab.

Julia Bell

Julia Bell is a Reader in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. She has published widely across poetry, non-fiction and fiction. She has written three novels and co-edited the bestselling The Creative Writing Coursebook; her most recent book-length essay on attention in the internet age, Radical Attention, was picked by Ali Smith as an indispensable book for navigating the next twenty years. Her collection of poetry, Hymnal, was nominated as Welsh book of the Month and her essays and short stories have been published in The Times Literary Supplement, The New Statesman, The Paris Review and Prospect as well as broadcast on the BBC. She has given talks and workshops across many contexts for London Zoo, RIBA, the Selfridges Group, MAD/Fest, and the British Council.

Laurence Guy

Laurence is a writer for screen & stage and is a graduate of the MA in Scriptwriting at Bath Spa University (with distinction). His play, ZORIC, was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2022, as well as gaining praise from the National Theatre and the Royal Court. Laurence’s script TRANSLATIONS was produced and directed by Keith Kopp as a low budget feature film, gaining a limited theatrical release in June 2023.  Reviews of TRANSLATION have described it as: “empathetically tender… surprising, warm, intriguing and hopeful.”  The film won Best Screenplay, Audience Favourite Film and Best Lead Actress at the Riverside International Film Festival 2023. He has recently written a thriller called ‘UNSEEN’ that is in further development. As a long term collaborator with Keith Kopp, together they have produced a series of short films that have played at festivals around the world as well as on Sky in the UK, cable in the USA and streaming channels worldwide, including Amazon Prime. Outside of film, Laurence was part of a team that set up a thriving community farm outside of Bristol, and he has toured and recorded with several bands in the UK and Europe. Laurence is represented by Steven Russell at Collective Talent.

“I came to Laurence with a script that was tied up in knots and he immediately identified the issues that were holding it back. His incisive, supportive feedback enabled me to bring what mattered about the story into focus and let my writing shine.” Jo.

“Laurence was a fantastic tutor; friendly, knowledgeable and full of useful advice. I would recommend him to anyone wanting to learn.” Emma

Kylie Fitzpatrick

Kylie Fitzpatrick has Masters and Doctoral degrees in Creative Writing and has lectured for nine years on the world-leading Creative Writing program at Bath Spa University. She has worked in script development for the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Commission and Beyond Productions, in Europe, the U.S. and Australia. Kylie is passionate about supporting emerging voices and has worked with published and unpublished authors across genres, literary and mainstream: YA; historical; genre fiction, non-fiction and memoir. Her four historical novels are published in eleven languages. Her books are: Tapestry, The Secret of the Ninth Stone, The Silver Thread, Women of the Round Table. You can find out more about Kylie here.

​“It’s a lucky writer who falls into the hands of Kylie Fitzpatrick. Astute, capable, experienced and with a fantastic intuition for drawing out the soul of a manuscript, Kylie is able – with great gentleness – to guide you in the right direction.”

“Kylie is an extremely wise and encouraging mentor. She brings her considerable experience of writing and the publishing world to her feedback, which is subtle and sure-footed, but always sensitively delivered. She’s exactly the person you want on your team.”

Stephanie Carty

Stephanie Carty is a writer, NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist and trainer in Gloucestershire, UK. Her short fiction is widely published. She has been shortlisted for many competitions including the Bristol Short Story Prize, Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and Bridport Prize and won prizes in competitions including Bath Flash Fiction Award and Bath Short Story Award. She has judged flash fiction and Novella-in-Flash competitions. She has taught face-to-face classes and online courses to writers for the last four years and has a post-graduate qualification in higher and professional education. Her novella-in-flash Three Sisters of Stone won Best Novella in the Saboteur Awards. Her writers’ craft book Inside Fictional Minds: Tips from Psychology for Creating Characters was published in 2021. Her short fiction collection The Peculiarities of Yearning will be published in Spring 2022. Find out more on her website.

 

Tom Conaghan

Tom Conaghan is the founder and publisher at Scratch Books. He is also editor at Lolli Editions, commissioning editor at The Word Factory, fiction editor at Bandit Fiction Literary Journal as well as editor at a boutique West London Literary Agency.

He is an experienced editor of a variety of work: from short stories, to experimental and genre-breaking literary fiction, through to a range of commercial projects. In his publishing of the Reverse Engineering anthologies, he shares his passion for the inspiration and dedication behind the best recent fiction.