ANDY WILLOUGHBY (England)

ANDY WILLOUGHBY is Writer in Residence at Redhills Miners’ Hall in Durham and host of Colpitts Poetry Live. He has also been Writer in Residence in Tartu, a UNESCO City of Literature, and at the Dylan Thomas Centre, and was Poet Laureate of his hometown, Middlesbrough.

He studied at the University of Kent at Canterbury and the University of Sheffield and has taught Creative Writing, Drama, English Language and Literature at the universities of Bolton, Salford, Teesside, Coventry and Northumbria. He continues to work in educational and community settings, particularly with marginalised and underrepresented groups.

A pioneer of spoken word and slam poetry, he has worked as a mentor for Apples and Snakes, co-founded the T-Junction Festival and organised festivals of new writing for theatre. He has led workshops and given readings across Britain and Europe, including at the Bucharest International Poetry Festival (2024), Art City Galați (2023) and Poetry in the Sand in Corbu and Constanța (2026).

His poetry collections include Between Stations, as well as Tough and Sampo: Heading Further North, written with Bob Beagrie. His work also appears in the major anthologies The Land of Three Rivers and From the Ancestors and has been translated into several European languages, including Romanian.