United Kingdom
A London-based writer of colour in her late 20s, gathering ideas and experiences to turn into written works.
My major interests are music, literature, mental health and wellness, and learning is my favourite thing to do.
Most Recent
It's late evening, you're visiting your local library on the way home from work to return some books that are about to go overdue. It's been a long, tiring day because you were up all of last night binging the brand new Netflix show Squid Game, and you've paid for it by not getting nearly...
My winning entry for the Bad Form x Bad Love Short Story Competition
By: Jacqueline Atta-Hayford About The Poem: This poem was written for The January Challenge, a month-long series of creative challenges run by an organisation called 64 million artists that are all about promoting creativity.
Published online
Mikki Kendall's Hood Feminism is, first and foremost, accessible. I think it's important to praise accessible language when you come across it in non-fiction, especially relating to social justice or feminism, because so often these books can be inundated with, frankly, classist barriers to entry in the language used.
Black History Month is a celebration of black cultures, diasporas, and important figures of the past present and future, so we wanted to kick off Black History Month in Enfield Libraries by taking a look at some of our favourite black Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors.
A video interview with best-selling author Ben Aaronovitch for Enfield Libraries
All of my interracial dating experiences have come packed together with many kinds of racial emotional labour for me to deal with. Whether it be microaggressions or racial ignorance, I know there are a lot of black women who share my experiences and more still that will be coming into those experiences as they get older, and what I have found is that the most important thing is how you look after your own mental health and self-esteem.
The very first time I attempted to meditate was in my first year of secondary school. We were on a class retreat. The reason why is vague in my memory, but the exercise was intended to get us all to relax and open ourselves up to the experience of the day more.
Published In Print
Shortlisted for the 2015 Enfield Charles Lamb Festival Essay Prize
A short essay on how mental illness impacts our ability to learn self-love and acceptance
Personal Blog Posts
A deep-dive into how I, Jackie Atta-Hayford, view myself and other people in terms of gender identity and expression.
So, I had my first big quarantine freak out last week. I'm not sure what caused it exactly, but I suppose it was just everything hitting me all at once in a way that it hadn't before. If it was a panic attack, it was different than the ones I usually experience.
Gal-dem is an online and print magazine created by women and non-binary people of colour. I've been a fan of theirs for years and the way they have created a platform that magnifies the voices of marginalized people and maintains a safe space for them to come to on the internet.
Blog post on positivity for plus-sized, femme-identifying people in honour of Mental Health Awareness Week 2019
I mentioned on our twitter page for the blog that I sincerely appreciated the information about Mind and Childline at the end of each book in Jo Cotterill's Hopewell High series. It's a collection of books that deal with the subject of mental illness in teenagers.
This blog post is not going to be about blaming you for your depression, anxiety, OCD, ADHD, or any mental illness you may be struggling with. This post is not telling you to "suck it up" or "get over it" because that is useless and unhelpful advice.