Hannah is a writer, editor and facilitator from Belfast. One of Freckle's co-founders, she enjoys the editing and organising that goes on behind the scenes. As co-ordinator of Northern Ireland's first creative writing centre for children, Hannah delivered workshops to thousands of young people, encouraging the natural creativity and imagination that everyone has the potential to express. After training as a Yoga teacher in 2015, she joined the Jivani Yoga team and teaches on programmes in Northern Ireland, Thailand and Costa Rica, specialising in compassionate communication.

Mick, a native of Tyrone now lives, works and studies in the community of Plum Village, a Buddhist retreat centre in south west France. Working on the 'Happy Farm' project with hundreds of retreatants, his work combines mindfulness based approaches with the production of seasonal, organic food.

Lynn is an illustrator and editor from the North coast of Ireland. She seeks to visually communicate empowering, solutions-based stories about ecology, non-violence and sustainability, providing a glimpse into the joys and beauty of the global movement of people quietly working towards a peaceful, living planet. She has just finished a two-year project looking at hope and despair in the environmental justice movement, and is also a writer for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, reporting and analyzing UN environmental negotiations around the world. She can usually be found outside - hiking or sea swimming, pondering people's relationships to their landscapes and ecosystems.

website: www.lynnfinnegan.ie

instagram: @lynn.finn.egan

Joe Laverty is an Irish architectural and portrait photographer, based in Belfast. His architecture, interiors & portrait photography has been published in Dezeen, Wallpaper, Irish Times, Architects Journal, Image Interiors, and the Guardian among others.

website: www.joelaverty-photography.com

instagram: @joelavertyphotography

Anna-Marie lives and works in Belfast. She is happiest spending time with her partner, family and friends, writing for Freckle and working with Flourish, a charity offering hope and help to survivors of human trafficking. She loves coffee – probably too much.

Esther is a Belfast native, a zen practitioner, yoga teacher and mother of two. She is a producer and the creative director of Haller Clarke. Esther believes in the power of people, kindness and good design.

website: www.hallerclarke.com
instagram: @estherhc73

Rob works hard at running his advertising photography business, rental studio and with his partner Olivia, their animal rescue and sanctuary charity. Before moving and calling Northern Ireland home, Rob ran a successful photography and creative agency in Southern California. He and Olivia are the proud guardians of 41 dogs, 8 cats, 2 ponies, 2 horses, 4 sheep and 2 foxes. Rob makes a wicked vegan enchilada and is a sucker for comedy podcasts.

website: www.durstonphoto.com

instagram: @robdurstonphoto

Azadeh Sobout is an Iranian researcher and practitioner based in Belfast. She has worked with a broad spectrum of policy, research, development and humanitarian organisations in the global North and South. Researching war-memoryscapes, a significant part of her work looks at the grassroots truth-memory practices of refugees and marginalised communities. Connecting her scholarly engagement in the field of transitional justice with the ideals of Islamic tradition and mystical conversations, she has evolved the idea of spiritual activism as a way of making connections, building spiritual and political communities that struggle for social transformation and justice.

website: sites.manchester.ac.uk/the-art-of-peace/home/people/

instagram: @azadeh926

Danielle Carragher, (DANI, The Silver Branch) is a conflict transformation facilitator and folk musician from the Armagh-Monaghan border. Her sound is inspired by the Irish traditional melodies she was raised with, her songs are reminiscent of Celtic folk tales. She holds an MSc in International Conflict and Cooperation and has worked in Palestine, Colombia and Indonesia interweaving the stories of place through sound. Danielle contributes to Freckle magazine and has recently decided to swim in the sea all year round.

website: www.danimusicathome.com

instagram: @dani_musictravels

Poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama’s work centres around themes of language, power, conflict and religion. Working fluently on the page and with groups of people, Pádraig is a skilled speaker, teacher and group worker. His work has won acclaim in circles of poetry, politics, religion, psychotherapy and conflict analysis. Poems featured or forthcoming in the following publications or platforms: Poetry Ireland Review, Academy of American Poets, Post Road, Cream City Review, Holden Village Voice, Proximity Magazine, On Being, Gutter, America, and Seminary Ridge Review. From 2014-2019 he led Corrymeela, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation. From 2020, he will present Poetry Unbound, an On Being (onbeing.org) poetry podcast.

website: www.padraigotuama.com

Bethany Dawson is a lover of words. She reads them, writes them and crafts them on behalf of others. She is the author of My Father’s House and her work has been featured in online and print publications. Bethany also runs creative retreats as The Still Point. Here, participants find quiet spaces in which to engage with the natural world and put on paper the stories that emerge. You will find Bethany on a smallholding in County Down where she and her family raise rare breed pigs and grow vegetables for their kitchen. She writes about the beauty of nature, our need to connect with the wild and alternative ways of educating children. She is completing another work of fiction.

website: www.bethanyjoydawson.com

Paul's debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award and was shortlisted for many others including the Prix du Roman Cezam. Paul wrote plays and comedy with his shows touring the UK and Ireland including the Edinburgh Festival and London's West End. His short stories have been in The Irish Times, The London Magazine, Faber's 'Being Various' and Kit de Waal's 'Common People' Anthologies, on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 5 and on Sky Arts. He co-founded the London Short Story Festival. Paul also writes for The Irish Times and his work has been translated into seven languages.

website: paulmcveighwriter.com

Originally from the wild Highlands, Ciara Menzies is a Scotland-based photographer and visual storyteller. True to her Scottish roots, she weaves a sense of graceful and considered storytelling into everything she does. Guided by the belief that everyone has a story to tell, she has been fascinated by people and travel for as long as she can remember. Her keenness to discover new stories and interesting perspectives has led Ciara around the world in search of the words unsaid. It is this foundation, complemented by a deep love for colour and texture that help define each photograph and visual story that she creates. Currently living in Edinburgh, Ciara can usually be found with a camera in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.

website: www.ciaramenzies.com

instagram: @ciara_menzies

An interest in photography was gifted to Tom by his father at a young age and it has became the passion behind his personal and professional life. From nature and birdlife, to politics in the Middle East and live music, photography has led him to travel extensively, meet new people and discover new aspects of life. It is the fleeting moments in life that pass us by unnoticed that he wishes to document, whether this occurs through interactions socially, or similar occurrences that happen in the natural world. He is perpetually interested in new work, new people and new experiences.

website: www.takenbytom.com

instagram: @taken_by_tom

website: www.sarahpannasch.com

instagram: @sarahpannasch

Paul Hutchinson is a writer, story-teller, community artist and facilitator. His latest book is Between the Bells (2019, Canterbury Press), and his latest documentary film is Waiting and Silence, about the Quaker Tradition. He is also the founder/director of Imagined Spaces (specialising in creative community relations), a former Director of Corrymeela – the oldest peace centre in Ireland – and a Visiting Professor at Dalhousie University and the Atlantic School of Theology (Nova Scotia). Paul has been a mediator and peace activist for over 25 years, working extensively in Northern Ireland, North West of England, New York, Jerusalem and Canada. He is a Belfast boy who lives by the sea on the North Coast of Ireland.

After graduating from Camberwell College of Art in 2013, Emma has had the chance to start and develop her architectural photography business, taking photographs for a wide range of clients (like Freckle!) including many architects and sub-contractors working both in urban and rural environments. She travels throughout Northern Ireland and Ireland to complete work and enjoys working with a variety of different people and landscapes.

Website: www.emmastewartphotography.com

Instagram: @emmastewartphotography

Matthew Rice was born in Belfast. His poems have appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, including Asheville Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Tangerine, and in the anthology ‘The Best New British and Irish Poets 2017’, edited by Luke Kennard. He was awarded runner-up in the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2017, and selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2017. He received a SIAP award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for 2017/18. His debut collection is in the works.

twitter: @wordswritten

Kiara Worth is a writer, photographer, sustainable development consultant and world traveller, who believes that united and inspired action can change the world. Her work focuses on sustainable and rural development, and she works in youth training and empowerment as well as UN environmental processes.

website: www.kiaraworth.com

instagram: @kiara_worth

Emma is a Northern Irish freelance illustrator and writer now based in Berlin. After graduating with a degree in Fashion and Textile Design from University of Ulster, Emma decided to combine her love of art with her passion for writing. She now contributes to various art and culture publications, with an aim to promote and share the work of inspiring modern creatives. While she writes every day, she’s also devoted to her own creative outlet—she hand-draws colourful illustrations inspired by the world around her.

instagram: @emmaillustrates_

Shots by Oliver is a freelance photographer/videographer from Derry, Northern Ireland, whose speciality has been Event's Photography. He has worked for some of the biggest event organisations in the region, including The Warehouse Project, Jika Jika!, Drumcode and Boiler Room. Oliver fell into the field of photography three years ago when he picked up a 35mm point-and-shoot camera shooting raw images of events he attended. Event promoters caught heat of his images from their events, and from there he’s gone on to shoot the likes of Mall Grab, Denis Sulta, Patrick Topping and Annie Mac.

website: www.shotsbyoliver.com

instagram: @ShotsByOliver

A career educator and freelance writer, Yvonne’s professional journey began during the 1980s where she cut her pedagogical teeth as an English teacher in Belfast. Since immigrating to America, Yvonne has enjoyed a successful career in education, serving in primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools. Beyond the schoolhouse, she has been recognized for her advocacy on behalf of immigrant students. She is a dynamic speaker on issues related to education and immigration, and in 2007 she collaborated with the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues to publish a bilingual book of student letters, Documented Dreams. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Irish Times, Freckle, Reading Ireland, andIrish Central.

twitter: @yvonnewatterson

website: yvonnewatterson.com

website: www.paperwindow.co.uk

instagram: @PaperWindowPhotography

website: www.photosby.si

instagram: @photosbysi