Our Founders
Kristen Haas Curtis is a medievalist (primarily of the Chaucerian variety) based at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. She is also a cartoonist and creative writer working primarily in the genres of autobiography and literary adaptation as well as the strange spaces where the two overlap. She is currently revising a prose adaptation of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and in the very-early-notes-stage of a possible graphic novel adaptation of the Parliament of Fowls. Find her online at https://hellomizk.com/ and as @hellomizk on Substack, Bluesky, and Instagram.
Laura Varnam is a poet, academic, and tutor based at University College, Oxford. As a poet she is working on a collection inspired by the women of the Old English epic Beowulf and her sequence of poems ‘Grendel’s Mother Bites Back’ was published in Primers Volume Seven (Nine Arches Press, 2024). As an academic, she is currently working in the fields of medievalism and creative criticism, working on a monograph on the fifteenth century mystic Margery Kempe which will include poetry as part of her response to Kempe’s Book. Find her online at https://drlauravarnam.wordpress.com/ and on social media (@drlauravarnam on Instagram and Bluesky; @lauravarnam on X).
Eleanor Baker is a medievalist based at the University of Oxford, where she is the English Subject Lead for the Astrophoria Foundation Year. Her research is primarily concerned with late medieval literature, and her interest in late medieval material texts and folk horror combine in her favourite creative pursuit: linocutting. She is also more broadly interested in public engagement and widening participation. Find her on Bluesky (more frequently) and X (less frequently) at @EleanorMayBaker .