Biography

Born in 1994, Rachel is a writer and poet from Coatbridge, described as ‘utterly committed’ with ‘outstanding potential’.

After gaining a first class mark in creative writing studies at the University of Edinburgh, Rachel was offered a place to study on the MSc Creative Writing. She opted to follow the poetry strand, and alongside her studies has acted as a poetry editor for 50GS (an online creative journal) and volunteered with the Scottish Poetry Library.  She has worked part-time as Deputy Programme Assistant at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and as a Tutor in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Rachel’s work has been published in various journals including Gutter magazine and Antiphon. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize, organised annually by Girton College at the University of Cambridge. She has performed her work both nationally and internationally and has twice been on the winning team of Unislam, the UK’s inter-university performance poetry championship.

Rachel has competed in a national performance poetry competition at the University of Texas, represented Scotland at the Talking Doorsteps Poetry Project at the Roundhouse, and performed her work in Bergen, Norway, where she lived in 2014-15.

As well as poetry, Rachel is interested in playwriting and writing for the theatre. Her play exploring class relations at university was selected from 75 five entries to be performed at the Winter Words New Writing Festival, organised by Glasgow based In Motion Theatre Company. She has been involved with the Traverse Young Writers group at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and was selected to participate in the Scottish Review of Books Emerging Critics Mentoring Programme, where she was mentored by editor Alan Taylor.

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