Fiona is the face of the Professional Writing Academy community. She’s spent much of her career managing and developing communities both face-to-face and online.

She's worked on a variety of projects with adults and young people, including an arts outreach scheme for Cheltenham Borough Council and community-based projects for the YMCA in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Fiona has been with PWA since 2015, focusing on the student experience and course development.

She works with students to support them both during their course and afterwards, via the growing Alumni Area, where participants join an active and supportive international community as they continue their writing journey.

Fiona has a PGCE, MA in Professional Writing and an MFA from Falmouth University.

A technically minded content strategist, as well as an experienced business writer and editor, Sarah helps us continually develop our online classroom and works alongside our tutors to create our courses.

Drawing on her years of experience in customer service and business, she’s written stories and developed digital content for major brands, and has helped develop and nurture online learning communities.

She loves working on unusual creative projects and is a D&AD Writing for Design award winner for collaborative writing project, From Home to Home and for Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Postal Services — a unique letter exchange where children can write to and receive replies from fictional monsters.

Sarah used to run a scuba diving school in the Caribbean, but gave it up to follow the dream: being a writer. She has an MA in Professional Writing.

Kate is a writer, editor and writing for wellbeing practitioner and researcher.

She is passionate about words and their ability to enhance our daily lives, from relaxation to self-discovery and workplace wellness. Kate is cofounder of WritingForLife.co.uk and founder of WriteToRelax.com.

She is a member of Lapidus International – a words & wellbeing organisation, and NAWE (National Association of Writers in Education). Discover more at katemcbarron.co.uk.

Carolyn lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. Her novels have been published in 23 languages and her poetry has won many awards. Two of her books are currently optioned for film.

She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen’s University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health.

Carolyn founded the The Writing Depression project in 2014 to explore the links between writing and mental illness, to investigate ways that writing can support mental wellness, and fundamentally to empower anyone suffering from mental illness. She is currently leading the next phase of the project.

In March 2020 Carolyn set up the Stay-At-Home! Literary Festival, in partnership with the creative writing incubator Paper Nations, in response to Covid-19 and as a venture to provide people with accessible, eco-friendly engagement with literature.

Helen has been teaching people to write for 30 years. She has devised and delivered writing courses from adult classes for recreational writers to undergraduate and masters degrees.

Her graduates are international prizewinners and have published adult, YA and children’s fiction, non-fiction and have had screenplays produced. They cite her down-to-earth approach and clear instruction as key to their progress.

Helen is a fiction writer and was a finalist in the Independent on Sunday short story competition.

She recently retired from university teaching to concentrate on finishing a novel – a contemporary thriller about a child’s murder – and to work with groups of writers in the wider community.

Jo has been working in online learning for almost a decade and specialises in the development, implementation, and administration of online learning systems, and the creation of high quality e-learning that enhances the learner's educational experience.

Rosie is an award-winning digital illustrator based in Bristol. She completed a BA in Illustration at Bournemouth University and an MA in Children's Publishing at Bath Spa.

In 2019 she won the Purple Dragonfly Book Award for children's book The Ugly Bug Club.