Janette Ayachi is a Scottish-Algerian poet with a BA combined honours degree in English Literature with Film Media Studies from Stirling University & an MSc in Creative Writing from Edinburgh University. Her poetry, prose & essays have been published internationally & translated into several languages. She is published in nearly a hundred literary journals & many anthologies including from presses such as Polygon; Seren, Canongate, Luath, Pagan press Texas, Vakxikon Athens, Black-Dog & One-Eyed press Nova Scotia & Jessica Kingsley London.
She has been Digital Poet in Residence for The Poetry School London & Visiting Poet on a Teaching Residency for the students of Arcadia University, Philadelphia. Her film poems have been selected for screening at festivals & she was the founder & editor of The Undertow Review for a few years bringing art & poetry into a multidisciplinary forum.
She collaborates with artists, has been shortlisted for a few accolades & was commissioned to write a poem for the BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘Conversations on a Bench’. She has been a regular broadcasting live on BBC Scotland performing poetry & as an Arts & Culture critic on The Afternoon Show. In 2019 she appeared on BBC television in the art series Loop; then The Edinburgh Show & The Big Scottish Book Club in 2020, the same year she also hosted a film about The Scottish Poetry Library for Book Week Scotland.
She is the author of the poetry pamphlets Pauses At Zebra Crossings & A Choir of Ghosts & her hardback children’s book The Mermaid, The Girl and The Gondola was illustrated by Fabio Perla. Her first full poetry collection Hand Over Mouth Music (Pavilion) won the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Literary Award 2019. She performs her poetry at festivals & events & is currently working on writing her second poetry collection ‘QuickFire, Slow Burning’ (Pavilion) & publishing her memoir ‘Lonerlust’ which chronicles her journeys travelling alone searching landscapes, culture, desire & human connection.