Teddy Mills is a poet and writer from Swansea. He earned his PhD in Applied Linguistics from Swansea University in 2024. He was highly commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2024-25. He’s currently working on his debut dark fantasy novel inspired by Welsh nature and folklore.

Teddy joined us in April 2025 on our Literary Agent Retreat with Cathryn Summerhayes as a bursary recipient, read on to find out more about his experience…

“I began work on what I hope will be my debut novel in January 2024, wrote 50,000 words of it, but then had to put it down to finish my PhD. When I was done with the PhD, I picked my novel back up and felt a little lost – it had been a long time since I had done consistent work on it, and I had changed my mind about a lot of things. I wasn’t sure where to go, or if it was even a good idea anymore! When I saw the “revise, edit, submit” course, I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about the publishing industry and meet other writers.

The course was out of my comfort zone – I’ve never done something like it – but I enjoyed the whole experience from start to finish. The communication from staff prior to the course was great and I felt prepared for the journey and arrival. We were blessed with a week of beautiful May sunshine and it was gorgeous! The grounds are stunning and there are beautiful river walks accessible from round the corner, as well as a lovely seaside town <5 min drive away (I got a lift in with one of the other participants; in my group there were always people willing to do something with you). There were plenty of places to sit and relax/read/write around the centre. I enjoyed writing in the smaller front library where it was cool and quiet, and I also spent time reading outside on the swing.

There were 14 of us in our group and everyone was friendly and chatty. Some people had more experience (both in attending workshops/retreats/etc and in writing/publishing in general) whereas others (like me) were on their first writing course. It was interesting chatting to everyone and hearing about their projects. Cathryn Summerhayes, the literary agent who joined us on the course, was super friendly and approachable. I learned a lot from her workshops and from our 1-2-1 chat where we talked about my book and my plans for the project. She gave us invaluable personal insight into the publishing world.

If you’re considering enrolling on a course, I can only say do it! I was so thankful to get a bursary because I wouldn’t have been able to attend the course otherwise and it’s really given me some motivation for finishing and sending out my novel. I’m part of a Whatsapp group with the other course members now for us all to stay in touch, which has been really nice. I don’t have a local community of writers so making those connections has been lovely.

My plan is to finish my novel revisions this summer and get it to a point where it’ll be ready for someone else to have a look at it. Another writer who is writing in the same genre and I have agreed to read each other’s manuscripts and give feedback prior to submission to agents. I’m really grateful for that, and can’t wait to stay in touch with everyone I met and hope that everyone gets a chance to see their work published one day!”