Paul McDonald is our resident judge. He judged our first ever short story competition and edited the subsequent anthology entitled, The Tipping Point. He set the standard for what was to follow in the years after in which the quality only ever increased.
He taught modern literature at the University of Wolverhampton for twenty five years, heading its creative writing programme for over a decade. He is an award winning author of eighteen books, including three novels and three collections of poetry. His most recent book is Allen Ginsberg: Cosmopolitan Comic.

R. M. Francis is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. He's the author of two novels, Bella and The Wrenna, published with Wild Pressed Books, and a poetry collection, Subsidence, with Smokestack Books. In 2019 he was the inaugural David Bradshaw Writer in Residence at the University of Oxford and in 2020 was Poet in Residence for The Black Country Geological Society. This residency produced his Geopoetic Waybook, The Chain Coral Chorus (Playdead Press). In 2023 Poe Girl Publishing produced his collection of horror stories, Ameles / Currents of Unmindfulness. His academic research focuses on place-identity in the Black Country and has been published in journals and edited collections; he co-edited the book, Smell, Memory and Literature in the Black Country (Palgrave McMillan) with Professor Sebastian Groes.