Three of the writers studied on PACE’s Master’s in Creative Writing and all are published by Femmesocial, a women-led indie publishing house specialising in multi-media and boundary-crossing works, including poetry and creative non-fiction.
The event will be introduced by PACE’s creative writing tutor Dr Alycia Pirmohamed and chaired by Petra Palkovacsova (they/them). Petra founded Femmesocial to address barriers for underrepresented authors by publishing experimental literature and hosting vibrant, multi-art events that make literature more engaging, accessible, and inclusive for diverse audiences.
Petra is a London-based poet, artist-researcher, and publisher. They studied at the University of Greenwich, focusing on poetry and critical theory, where they currently work as a part of the Curriculum Shape team. Petra was shortlisted for the Street Cake experimental writing prize in 2021 with their prose poetry piece ‘I Remember’. They were published in multiple anthologies including Queer W/rites: A University of Greenwich Anthology, Between Queer Teeth anthology (t’ART Press), and the Bluebird Anthology, and zines such as the Street Cake Magazine, Marezine, seedlings, Deleuzine, and BASH Magazine. In 2023, they self-published their first collection, Mythologies, and they founded a publishing house called Femmesocial Press in the same year. Petra is currently completing a PGCert in Teaching Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. Petra has recently been longlisted for the 2026 Clarissa Dalloway prize with their essay 'CANCER AS A PHOTOGRAPH/ CANCER AS TEXT', and they are working on their second poetry collection, being and time.
Benedetta Mancusi is a London-based writer who has just completed a Master’s in Creative Writing at PACE. Her debut poetry collection, a prayer book, was published by Femmesocial Press in 2025. She was shortlisted for the Florence Staniforth Student Fiction Prize 2025. Her poetry has been featured in The Mays, Tummy Ache, Body Odyssey: A Poetry Anthology by Heroica, and the Cambridge Review of Books Digital. She is currently working on a Gothic novel.
Benedetta's writing process for a prayer book became a dialogue with all her present and past selves. The idea took shape during a guest workshop at Cambridge led by Tim Tim Cheng, who encouraged students to compose a poem in the form of a prayer to something or someone. a prayer book is an intimate and reminiscent collection that excavates personal, mundane things and uncovers within them a holiness. A journey of reflection across the close-knit relationship between family and faith.
Zahra Hamdulay is a writer and recent creative writing Master’s student at PACE and will soon begin her studies in curation at New York University. Her work explores contemporary womanhood through metamodern autofiction, confessional writing, women's diaries, and digital literature. Interested in hybrid and experimental forms, she writes across genres and media, often blurring the boundaries between autobiography, lyric, and digital text. Her hybrid collection of lyric essays, Rosie, Starfish, Breakfast will be published by Femmesocial in September.
Stephanie Ritzema is a folk musician and author living in London. Her debut collection On Small Losing was released in 2026 with Femmesocial Press and chronicles her personal journey with women’s health, familial connection and loss. Her work can also be found in a variety of London and Cambridge based magazines. She is an alumna of PACE’s Master’s in Creative Writing.