Inés G. Labarta is a queer fiction writer and immigrant currently living in the southwest of England. She has published a collection of middle-grade novels – Los Pentasónicos (Edebé, 2008-2010) and two novellas – McTavish Manor (Holland House, 2016) and Kabuki (Dairea, 2017). Her forthcoming novel, The Three Lives of Saint Ciarán, (Blackwater Press, 2023) was described by Toby Litt as ‘exciting and provocative’. Her short stories have won awards like the Autonomous University of Madrid Short Story Prize, and have been published in places such as Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Oranges Journal and the Lancashire Short Stories anthology. She has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Plymouth. She is the co-founder and director of The Wandering Bard magazine and podcast.

A few random facts about myself…

• I have lived in four different countries throughout my life so far. I firmly believe everyone should live abroad for at least one month. It opens your mind. Seriously. You have to try it.
• I speak Japanese.
• I don’t believe in unconditional love amongst humans, but I do believe in unconditional love between a human and their pet since I adopted my two gorgeous cats.
• I hate the word expat. If you live in another country like I do, you are an immigrant (yes, you all British people who voted for Brexit while living in Benidorm because ‘you didn’t want immigrants living your country’, I’m looking at you). I am an immigrant and very proud of it. This word needs to lose its bad rep for all the damage it’s causing. Also: every human being has the right to travel places to look for a better life.
• I was born in Madrid, but I have been living in England for 8 years.
• A food I could eat without ever getting tired of it: apples.
• I feel it’s kind of an artists’ cliché but yes, I am addicted to coffee.
• I have been a vegetarian (these days I’m 99% vegan) since I was 19.
• I’m obsessed with mountains and the Scottish Highlands are one of my very favourite places on this planet. Favourite mountain to climb? Suilven.
• I won my first literary contest when I was 8 years old and tiny me got so happy that it cried (I also think I was the only person who entered said contest but hey, winning is always sweet, isn’t it?)
• My favourite book as a teenager was Lost Souls by Billy Martin (formerly known as Poppy Z Brite).
• I’m the most coward person I’ve ever met. Main fears include hospitals, tight spaces, needles, giant spiders and being possessed by an evil entity.
• Most of my writing ideas come from dreams.