Patrick is a Lecturer and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, where his research brings together poetic and creative theory, literacy and education research, and cognitive psychology and neuroscience to explore other-than-critical forms of literary engagement and their potential experiential and psychological benefits. He is Co-Director of the Literacy Lab and an affiliate researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH). He is also an internationally recognised poet and literary translator, with recent work having won the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize from Trinity College Dublin, the Bronwen Wallace Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada, and the Callan Gordon Award from the Scottish Book Trust.

Sarah is Professor of Literacy (Psychology & Education) and Co-Director of the Literacy Lab. She is based within Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. Sarah’s research focuses on supporting children and young people’s literacy experiences and outcomes, and enriching lives through literacy.  She works regularly with children, young people, teachers, and literacy, library and education organisations to inform and conduct her research. 

Dan is Professor of Brain and Language in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD in Psychology in 2005 from Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. He worked as an Institute Scientist at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (2009-2013), Assistant Professor at Drexel University (2013-2016), and Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2016-2019), before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2019.  His research examines the brain systems that support language processing, with a particular focus on naturalistic language such as understanding narratives (e.g., books and movies), functional communication in post-stroke aphasia, and aesthetic pleasure from reading poetic language.

Elena holds a PhD in Education from the University of Edinburgh. Her research explored young people’s meaningful engagement with narrative fiction and the ways literary experiences can support adolescents’ understanding of themselves and others, identity formation, and social and emotional development. Elena has a background in literacy studies, holding a Master’s in Children’s Literature with a pathway in Creative Writing and a Master’s in Storytelling. Her work draws on qualitative, participatory, and co-production research methods, with a strong commitment to youth voice, advocacy, and inclusive research practice.

Simina received her PhD in Applied Cognitive Psychology in 2025 from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. Her doctoral research investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying poetry-elicited emotions, with a focus on auditory imagery: what we hear in our mind’s ear. She is particularly interested in how text and reader characteristics interact to shape emotional responses to poetic language.