The Common Press CIC is a not-for-profit queer bookshop that means a lot of things to the community. As London's first consciously queer intersectional bookshop, we provide a safer space for our LGBTQIA+ community to exist both during the day and at night in social settings. We are a radical and independent space that stands up for what we believe in and champions books by authors from a wide range of marginalized backgrounds. We host a diverse range of events every day, including dance classes, yoga sessions, book clubs, family-friendly events, book launches, workshops, and parties.
Em—Dash is a South East London based studio + press. We experiment with the book-form, playfully publishing work that spans across art-practice, design, research, and visual culture. Beyond books, we have worked across mediums of curation, film and radio. We also run workshops to share ideas, skills and facilitate collective making. Em—Dash is operated by artists and designers Aarushi Matiyani + Saundra Liemantoro.
Sticky Fingers Publishing is an intra-dependant press based in South East London, run by Kaiya Waerea and Sophie Paul. We are a feminist, queer, disabled-led publisher producing experimental non-fiction at the intersection of academia, visual culture, art, design and performance.
Trans Kids Deserve Better is an activist network made of trans youth fighting for our rights. We take direct action against unjust, transphobic policies: restrictions to our healthcare, denial of our dignity and removal of our voice. We have targeted NHS England, the Department for Education, the LGB Alliance, and of course our ongoing target; Wes Streeting. We dream and demand a world where trans youth have the rights we all deserve and live a life free of fear of transphobia and will fight our way there.
SISSY ANARCHY is a multifaceted, trans-led platform at the intersection of anarchist thought, queer resistance and lived trans realities. Named the leading indie press in London by AnOther Magazine and recently featured at the 60th Venice Art Biennale 2024, our work spans publishing, public intervention and political agitation.
Penny Goring is an artist and poet. For over 30 years, she has produced her work at home with modest means of production, recently focusing on doll-like sculptures made from hand-sewn fabrics and digital collage using MS Paint. Goring channels experiences of anxiety, grief and desperation into myth-making by weaving fable into memory, imagination into history, the personal into the political, until the works become universal expressions of the contemporary state of emergency. Her relentlessly direct poetry is entangled throughout, appearing in titles, drawings, collages, and stitched onto her fabric sculptures. Recent books: Hatefuck the Reader, and Fail Like Fire, both available from Public Knowledge Books and selected bookstores internationally.
Campbell King is a singer, songwriter and poet from the midlands. They write about love and ‘home’ through a gender queer and working class lens.
Stuart McKenzie is an artist, illustrator, poet and musician. His work explores the performance of self through materiality, manifested through painting, poetry, performance and objects. McKenzie has exhibited at TG Gallery Nottingham, MIART Milan, Umwelt Mode Basel, Dinner Party Gallery and Blackwing Studios London. He is widely published as a poet and featured in the Laudanum Chapbook Anthology series Volume 1. He is guitarist / vocalist with the band Wild Daughter.
Ms Sharon Le Grand is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer who has been terrorising the east London drag scene and beyond for the past 10 years. With her foghorn-like voice, she has done everything from live art, to west end, to her self-written musical ‘tomorrow is already dead.’ She performs everywhere and anywhere that will have her such as Glastonbury, Latitude, The Royal Court, The National Theatre, Soho Theatre, her back garden and many more!
mk margetson (Hull, 1991) is a poet, filmmaker, and artist working primarily with video, text, performance and sound. They have circulated poetry and developed short stories and screenplays since childhood. The novella ALIEN FEELING is their first full-length publication, combining speculative fiction, memoir, and poetry to invert science fiction themes and rhythmically explore the stories of their dialect. It inspired a short form video work of the same name, released in 2025. Their writing has been published in Rub Magazine, Screwed Zine, Tissue, and on Montez Press Radio. Poetry pamphlet preparing to land.
Amelia Abraham is a journalist and author from London. She writes regularly for The Guardian, The Observer, Dazed and other titles on queer arts, culture and politics. Her books include Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ+ Culture and We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices
on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights. She is currently working on her first novel, about the ghost of a lesbian nun, and her first edited art criticism book, on visualising queer nightlife.
P~WAVE is the DJ moniker of curator and researcher of music, sound and performance Poppy Moroney. She is currently the Director of London Performance Studios, previously co-ran Auto Italia and was co-founder of sound and music collective Synaptic Island. In 2023 she completed an MA in Visual Sociology, and her research practice explores what music, sonic methods and sound worlds can tell us about society, and vice versa.
Hasti is a poet and writer living in South East London. A member of the inaugural Southbank New Poets Collective and the Ledbury Poetry Critics, they are the recipient of the 2023 White Review Poet's Prize, and the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry. They have co-written short sci-fi film DIGGING, produced by Film4, and published pamphlets ‘U’ with Reference Press and ‘Agitations & Birdsong’ with Bleet! zine. Hasti hosts open mic and poetry night Fresh Lip, and its sister show for Montez Press Radio, Fresh Air. Their debut pamphlet is forthcoming with Little Betty.
Nicky
is a London based artist, composer, musician and former clown. They've built a reputation for writing heartfelt and unique songs reflecting their life experiences. Recently they composed for the AIDS Play Project, and performed at Milan Art Week. Their second EP will be released by PRAH recordings in October. Currently, they are getting ready for festival season and to release 2 new singles in July!
Mya Mehmi
is a groundbreaking multidisciplinary artist, DJ, and cultural producer. She was thefirst trans woman artist to be playlisted on BBC Asian Network with her debut single ‘Parivaar (Interlude), and has been featured in The Face, Vogue India, and Dazed. She’s also the creator of the powerful podcast Straight No Chaser, and a producer at Pxssy Palace which was named Britain’s Best Club Night by DJ Mag. Mya is known for creating bold, inclusive spaces through music, media, and events.