“Survive.

It gave the star purpose in its new life. There was never a moment of dullness as every moment was, for better or for worse, occupied by the perilous but exhilarating new existence it had found itself in.”

– The Darkest Spot in the Sky by Ren Robertson

Alysha Boa Morte Santos

Alysha Boa Morte Santos completed her Bachelor of Creative Writing
and Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Wollongong and is
currently working to complete her Masters of Letters in Creative
Writing at the University of Stirling. Alysha enjoys working in prose,
poetry and script but most often writes contemporary and literary
fiction exploring themes of cultural heritage and diaspora. She is
currently working on a full-length novel about the ties between the
people we call family and the places we call home.

Catherine Ogston

Catherine Ogston writes flash fiction, short stories and longer YA fiction. Flash pieces have been published by Bath Flash, Flash 500, TL;DR Press, Firewords, The Phare, National Flash Fiction Day 2020-25 and others. Short stories have been published in New Writing Scotland 35 & 39, Scottish Arts Trust, Leicester Writes Prize, Retreat West Prize and others. Longer work has been long/short listed at Exeter Novel Prize, Caledonia Novel Award, Kelpies Prize for Children’s Writing and others. Recent winner of the Fabuly Writers’ Challenge and upcoming in Best Microfictions 2025.

Demi Sutherland

Demi is a writer and filmmaker based in Dunfermline, Fife, currently completing an MLitt in Creative Writing. Through her screenplays, poetry, and short prose, she explores mental health, relationships, and nature. She is inspired by folklore, mythology, and philosophy, using magical realism to reflect human psychology. She is currently filming a documentary commission celebrating Fife’s coastline. She loves night walks with her dog and finds writing about herself in the third person amusing!

Dhanya Baburaj

A selective introvert who loves to read and write poetry, memoir and romance stories, she was born in rural Kerala but grew up in Mumbai, a metropolitan city in India. Her love for words began at an early age through reading of classical works in English and Malayalam (language spoken in Kerala). Her fascination with English literature started with reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula at 8 years old. In her free time, besides reading and writing, she loves to explore places, especially beaches; listen to music; and paint landscapes.

James Howard

James Howard is the writing team liason for this years Styvling press anthology. He is from Shetland, and writes mostly poetry, along with some prose and scriptwriting. He is particularly interested in dialect poems, and the use of second person in poetry and fiction. His pieces for the anthology centre around Scottish Folklore, and aim to highlight Scottish language and culture in a unique and humorous manner.

Jules Forrest

Jules is a Scottish writer who writes dark, humorous literary fiction. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Stirling. If she isn’t writing, she is most likely rewatching Twilight or listening to Chappell Roan while trying to navigate the Easyjet website.

Louise Gow

Louise is a current Creative writing masters student who writes mainly young adult fiction with a mix of thriller/romance and sometimes mental health themed poetry. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in Primary Education and recently wrote a children’s book for Scottish children’s charity A Bear Named Buttony. She is passionate about writing and is loving the course along with the lovely community at Stirling University.

E. Olsen

Writes hopeful near-future speculative fiction, blending elements of solarpunk and hopepunk to reimagine our world in her novels. This short story, a departure from her usual work, reimagines Hansel and Gretel as an origin story of the Slavic folklore figure Baba Yaga. It was inspired by her daughter creating necklaces for the family as safety amulets after a turkey feast. Thanks be to the poultry.

saint jae

saint jae is a detroit-born and michigan-raised primeval slacker-poet presently pursuing a postgraduate degree at the university of stirling in stirling, scotland. jae writes on grief, identity, and dinosaurs.

Ren Robertson

Ren Robertson is a fiction writer currently based in Stirling, Scotland. He is primarily a sci-fi, Scottish folklore, mythology, and fantasy writer with a specific interest in blending them all together and exploring characters and ideas that come from that. He has a few short stories locally published and is currently working on a sci-fi/Scottish mythology novel.

Ruth Reid

Ruth Reid is a poet based in Kintyre, Scotland, who brings a depth of lived experience to her poetry. She is interested in myth, memory, and impermanence, Scottish folklore, history, and the shifting landscapes of both place and identity.

Her work is both rooted in the past and attuned to contemporary questions of displacement, justice, and cultural change, interrogating how stories, both inherited and forgotten, continue to shape the present.

Shani Doudet

Shani Lila Doudet is a French, gender non-conforming writer, actor and artist currently based in Scotland. As a creative, Shani often blends poetry with hand-drawn illustrations to craft intimate, atmospheric works. Their art and writing often explores themes of identity, nature, and quiet transformation. In addition to poetry, Shani also writes creative non-fiction, weaving personal narrative and imaginative storytelling