Goldsmiths Writers' Centre People

Meet the people involved with the Goldsmiths Writers' Centre.

Primary page content

Photo of Ros Barber

Dr Ros Barber

Dr Ros Barber is a Senior lecture in Creative and Life writing with experience in teaching Poetry, short story, the novel, literary fiction, fictional auto/biography, literary biography, life writing, Shakespeare.

Photo of Professor Maura Dooley

Professor Maura Dooley

Maura Dooley has supervised, or currently supervises, creative writing theses in which the critical component investigates the following: the short story, autobiography/memoir in Irish literature, adaptation as a tool in writing practice, the poetry of Michael Donaghy, 'play' in contemporary poetry and the poetry essay.

Stephen Knight

Stephen was born in Swansea in 1960, read English at Jesus College, Oxford, then studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to become a freelance director with a particular interest in new writing. He has worked for thirty years as a creative-writing tutor in schools, colleges, The City Lit, the University of South Wales and Goldsmiths.

Photo of Adam Mars-Jones

Adam Mars-Jones

Adam Mars-Jones's books include the novels Pilcrow and Cedilla, part of a million-word sequence, and the monograph Noriko Smiling, about a classic Japanese film. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books.

photo of Professor Blake Morrison

Professor Blake Morrison

Professor Blake Morrison teaches the Life Writing option on the MA in Creative Writing, and supervise students on the MA and PhD creative writing programmes.

Photo of Professor Francis Spufford

Professor Francis Spufford

Professor Francis Spufford has a BA in English Literature, from University of Cambridge, 1985; chief publisher’s reader, Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1987-90; full-time writer, 1990-2004; writer in residence, University College London, 2004-5; Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge) 2005-07; at Goldsmiths since 2007.

Photo of Dr Jack Underwood

Dr Jack Underwood

Dr Jack Underwood is a poet and critic. A winner of the Eric Gregory Award in 2007, his debut pamphlet was published by Faber as part of the first Faber New Poets series in 2009.

Photo of Ardashir Vakil

Ardashir Vakil

Ardu was born in Bombay and lived in India up to 1980. He taught English in London comprehensive schools for twenty years. Previously, he has been Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Middlesex, Roehampton and UEA. 

Photo of Dr Erica Wagner

Dr Erica Wagner

Distinguished Fellow of the Goldsmiths Writers Centre, Erica Wagner was born in New York City and is a widely-acclaimed author and critic. She is the author of Gravity: Stories, Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters and Seizure, a novel; she is the editor of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner.

Photo of Ben Woolley

Dr Benjamin Woolley

Distinguished Fellow of the Writers' Centre, Dr Benjamin Woolley has written biographies and histories on subjects ranging from the colonisation of America to Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer. His most recent book, King’s Assassin, is being adapted as a TV miniseries for Sky/AMC starring Julieanne Moore. His academic work includes ‘What’s History doing in Fiction’, a study of the role of history in fiction and dram