Our story

Carol Vallet is a French/Brit based in Brussels. She teaches Primary school children and frequently creates class projects inspired by well-known children’s authors. Encouraging children to read and write is her day to day and she writes short stories based on life experience in her free time. She has lived in Britain, France, Japan and Italy and her writing is often inspired by these places.

Colette Victor is an award-winning author whose works include Head Over Heart (Chicken House, 2013) and What to do with Lobsters in a place like Klippiesfontein (Cargo Publishing, 2015). In 2018, Colette won the BBC World Service & British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition for her radio play, By God’s Mercy. She was an Imison Award 2020 shortlistee for best original script by a writer new to radio for the same play. She earned her MA degree in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2019. She’s an experienced writer of many years and a trained creative writing teacher. Colette has extensive experience in coaching new writers, teaching workshops, organising writers’ retreats and giving constructive criticism.

Emma Woodford is a Belgian/Brit who is passionate about reading and writing poetry and hosting the occasional poetry workshop. She is a member of Poets for the Planet and Klimaatdichters. A runner up in the world renown Gingko Environmental Poetry Prize, Emma has been published in e-journals such as Black Bough Press, Allegro Poetry, Bindweed Magazine and Quarter Press. her debut pamphlet, 'Wingless I Watch', was longlisted by the Aryamati Poetry Prize for Social Change and Peace before being published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2025. Her performances have included reading at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and events in Brussels.

James Candon is a recovering lawyer who left a 28-year career in technology and finance in 2018 to cycle from the west coast of France to the east coast of Romania (www.cyclingacross.eu). He grew up in Ireland and lives between Belgium and Croatia. He tries to speak the languages of those countries. Since leaving the law business, he started www.idemo.club which aimed to bring people across border, language and cultural divides together through amateur sports tours for groups of young people until COVID came and froze it deep. . Since then, he has been the general director of www.united-europe.eu, an organization to promote the unity, diversity and competitiveness of Europe, values to which he strongly adheres. He also completed his MA in Literature in 2023 at KU Leuven in Belgium and therefore explores ways to bring people of different backgrounds together through the power of a shared culture.

Katja Knežević is an award-winning poet and short story writer. She holds a Master’s degree in English and French literature. In 2012, she won the 'Sea of Words' literary competition organised by IEMed and the Anna Lindh Foundation with her short story, 'Invisible mother'. In 2014 she won the Croatian national Young Poet Laureate award, with the manuscript “Birches made of glass”. The collection was subsequently published in April 2015. She writes in English and Croatian. Her poetry and prose have appeared in anthologies such as 2019 Brussels Writers' Circle and So Long as You Write, as well as literary magazines Tether's End, Thimble, Popshot Magazine and Molecule Lit Mag.

Matilda Sevón is a Finnish writer based in Belgium. She is working on a middle-grade fantasy novel about the power of words, and also occasionally writes crime fiction. She has participated in several writing courses, and regularly reads articles and listens to podcasts about writing. She is particularly interested in the interplay between characterisation and story structure. She is a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She has a Master's degree in philosophy and works in communications at a Think Tank in Brussels. She can be found on Bluesky at @tuulimatilda.bsky.social.