We are pleased to introduce five new tutors to our thriving Literature programme in Culture and Humanities. They will be contributing to a rich and varied programme for the Autumn term from September 2025.
Jake Poller
Dr. Jake Poller has taught in the English department at Queen Mary University of London for over ten years. He has published many peer-reviewed articles and chapters in edited collections - most recently a chapter on Aldous Huxley for The British Novel of Ideas (CUP, 2024). He is the author of three books, including critical biographies of Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood for Reaktion Books.
Jake will be teaching 'Aldous Huxley and His Contemporaries', where he explores how the spiritual interests of Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence and Christopher Isherwood shaped the literary work they wrote in America in the 1920s and 30s.
Suzannah V. Evans
Dr. Suzannah V. Evans is a poet, researcher, and educator. Her debut full poetry collection is Under the Blue (Bloomsbury Poetry, September 2025). She is the author of Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language, and the editor of All Keyboards are Legitimate: Versions of Jules Laforgue (Guillemot Press). A chapter of her work appears in Carcanet’s anthology New Poetries VIII. Her poetry has been awarded the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment and a Northern Writers’ Award, performed at international festivals, and broadcast on BBC Radio. She holds an AHRC-funded PhD in modern poetry from Durham University, and has taught literature and creative writing widely in higher and adult education.
Suzannah will be teaching a range of poetry courses, including two introductory poetry days in October, 'Exploring Poetry' and 'An Introduction to Poetry'. She will also be running a survey course on 20th century poetry 'Making it Modern'. Suzannah’s 'A Day with T.S. Eliot', explores the Nobel Prize-winning poet, T. S. Eliot, where the focus will be on the language and contexts of his striking poetry.
Grace Barnes
Grace’s work as a playwright has been produced by the Royal Lyceum, Traverse and Theatre Workshop in Edinburgh, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Glasgow Citz, Drill Hall London and Signature in Arlington. She has directed numerous plays in the UK and Australia, and has lectured on BA Drama and/or Musical Theatre courses at the University of Plymouth, Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Institute of Drama in Sydney. Grace has a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney.
Grace will be teaching 'Reflecting the Nation: 21st century drama and society', taking a look at how dramatists use their position as commentators to reflect the societal and political issues affecting the nation. Playwrights include Laura Wade, Jez Butterworth, Roy Williams and others.
Linda Grant
Linda’s research and writing encompass classical Greek and Latin, and Renaissance literature, especially poetry. She has published extensively on discourses of love, desire and the erotic; the history of the body; and classical reception, especially in poetry – her PhD thesis and first monograph were on European receptions of Latin erotic elegy. She also has interests in women’s writing; in literature in translation and in contemporary autofiction. She has taught in both Classics and English departments at Birkbeck, Queen Mary, and Royal Holloway. Linda is currently writing a book entitled Shakespeare’s Bodies and is researching a monograph on mythology and modernism focusing on female authors. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Linda will be teaching 'Journeys to the Underworld', an exploration of the katabasis or journey into the underworld, a standard element of many classical texts. What is this journey and what does the return to the world above mean? Taking examples from mythological poetry, epic, and Athenian drama, the course also looks at how later writers (Joseph Conrad, Margaret Atwood, Elena Ferrante) adopt and adapt this trope using it to explore colonialism, feminism and motherhood.
Jessica Wilson
Trained at Cambridge University and UCL, Jessica Wilson is British-born of Jamaican descent, moving between Montego Bay and London. She has six fiction books focussed on the Caribbean, West African and Black British experience set for release within the next 3 years. She was a participant within Penguin Random House's 'WriteNow', shortlisted for an Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and, most recently, the recipient of the Royal Society of Authors' Arthur Welton Award for poetry.
Her first book, 'Sofia the Dreamer and Her Magical Afro' was a National Poetry Day Recommended Read and endorsed by Benjamin Zephaniah and Afua Hirsch. Jessica has worked as a speaker, tutor and consultant for The Race Council, BookTrust Represents, University of the West Indies, Pan MacMillan and School Library Association.
Jessica will be teaching 'Black British Literature', where over six weeks, this online literature course studies the evolution and diversity of Black British literature, exploring aspects of identity, race, history and culture.
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