About

Bethany Handley is an award winning writer, poet and disability activist from South Wales.

Bethany campaigns for better access to nature for Disabled people and raises awareness of the barriers that Disabled people face. Her work has been featured by Country Living, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Wales, BBC News, Nation.Cymru, WalesOnline, Metro, POETRY, Poetry Wales, The Welsh Agenda, Spelt, Plantlife Magazine and on the Poetry Foundation. Her debut poetry pamphlet will be published by Seren in February 2025.

Bethany is one of the writers on Literature Wales’ Representing Wales 2023-24, she’s an occasional guest reviewer of the Sunday papers on BBC Radio Wales and she was one of the Sherman Theatre’s Unheard Voices.

Bethany was a finalist in Nine Arches Press’ Primers 2023 and was nominated for The Pushcart Prize 2023. She was awarded the gold Prize for Creative Non-fiction in the Creative Future Writers’ Award 2023.

As an advocate for Disabled writers, Bethany ran Write Back, a writing retreat and mentorship scheme for Welsh d/Deaf and Disabled writers, with author Megan Angharad Hunter, and Megan, Bethany and author Sioned Erin Hughes are currently editing the first bilingual anthology of Welsh d/Deaf and Disabled writers.

Bethany has worked with many media and third sector organisations to promote the social model of disability and to challenge the barriers Disabled people continue to experience. She is available for disability awareness training and access audits, including audits of rural sites.